phi if tfongrcjs.s. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



OUR HOLY HILL. 



" THE HILL WHICH GOD DE8IRETH TO DWELL IN.' 



BY 



REV. TIMOTHY ALDEN TAYLOR. 



n 




BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY S. K. WHIPPLE AND COMPANY. 

161 Washington Street. 

185 7. 



H- 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

REV. T. A. TAYLOR, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



CAMBRIDGE I 
ALLEN AND FARNHAM, PRINTERS. 



DEDICATION. 



MRS. RUTH SLATER, 

Madam : — To you I dedicate this volume. I should have no 
misgivings in thus using your name, without permission, were I 
confident that the work is worthy of such an inscription. Still 
the sentiments herein contained have already received your ap- 
proval as they have been presented in our sanctuary. More than 
fifty years has your home been in this place ; and as I learn from 
the records, for more than forty years have you been a member 
of this church. It had not been in existence four months when 
you were baptized and received into its fellowship. The Rev. 
Daniel Waldo, now ^igtrty-four years of age, was its organizer, 
and for some time its acting pastor. In a letter, which I received 
from him during his recent chaplaincy at Washington, he speaks 
most affectionately of this church and village. Of the latter he 
remarks, that it was for him a favorite retreat when he had been 
toiling in less pleasant fields, and that your husband's house was a 
" delightful home " to him. He adds, that it would be a " beauti- 
ful oasis " in his life to visit Slatersville once more. Alluding to 
the church, he styles it a vine of God's " own right hand's plant- 
ing." Having expressed an earnest wish for its great prosperity, 
he concludes his communication thus : " This is the desire of your 
brother in Christ." 



IV DEDICATION. 

Permit me, dear madam, to say, that one of the greatest encour- 
agements which I have experienced in my relation to this people 
has been your faithful attendance upon my ministrations. Never 
have I seen your seat vacant in the house of God or at our weekly 
religious meetings, without feeling an assurance that God's prov- 
idence had detained you. Thrice on the Sabbath have you been 
wont to appear on " Our holy hill ; " and who has been a more 
regular attendant than yourself upon the exercises of our Sabbath 
School ? 

It is not strange, that, at the age of more than threescore years 
and ten, you should begin to feel your strength diminishing. The 
Lord " add unto thy days fifteen years." 

Very familiar have you long been with the path to the village 
cemetery. There rest the remains of your husband and of the 
great majority of your numerous family of sons and daughters. 
There, too, slumber children-in-law and grandchildren. But in 
respect to all these, you entertain a reasonable hope that the 
trumpet of the archangel will call them to shine forth in the king- 
dom of their Father. 

May the gracious Saviour, Mrs. Slater, smile upon you during 
the remainder of your earthly pilgrimage ; and grant you, when 
the hour of your exit shall have arrived, a transfer to that Holy 
Hill above, of which ours on earth is but a miniature emblem. 
Yours in the service of Christ, 

T. A. TAYLOR. 

Slatkrsville, R. I., May, 1857. 



CONTENTS 



Page 

Dedication iii 

The gospel justly claims the homage of the 

WORLD 1 

The sinaitic tables 14 

The sermon on the mount and orthodoxy . . 25 

Christ's friends do his will 33 

The good man loves the bible .... 43 

The pious love god's house 51 

The sacrifices of god 59 

Pride abased 66 

Meekness 73 

Man primeval 81 

God's particular providence 88 

God's works are still good 97 

The profitableness of prayer 103 

Saints pray 108 

Spiritual sloth 110 

The name jesus 120 

Anathema 127 

The lord's table 129 

Joy in god 136 

Thoughts for a thanksgiving day . . . 142 



VI CONTENTS. 

Reflections at the opening of a new year . 150 

Beyond the tomb 157 

Prepare to live. Prepare to die . . . .164 

no exchange for a lost soul . . . . 171 

An appeal 178 

To-day 183 

No MORE DEATH 191 

Christ's second coming 196 



Note. — The articles comprising this volume, excepting the first, have 
been already published in religious periodicals. As here presented, how- 
ever, they have undergone numerous alterations. 



AVORKS 



BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS VOLUME. 



"THE SOLACE." 

Four Editions. 32mo. 128 pages. 

[From the Christian Mirror.] 
This book was prepared and designed for the afflicted, and well is it 
suited to answer this design. 



[From the Puritan Recorder.] 
The plan is conspicuous, leading the reader delightfully through a va- 
riety of topics connected with, and illustrating the great theme of the book. 
The style is pure, easy, plain, in a word just that which pictures thought,, 
without fixing attention on itself. 



"ZION." 

Four Editions. 32mo. 160 pages. 

[From the Boston Traveller.] 
It is such a book as a devout Christian would love to take in his pocket" 
on a journey, to aid his meditations on one of the most important and inter- 
esting themes. 

[From the Puritan Recorder.] 
This is an interesting little work, designed to present the church in some 
of its most beautiful yet practical aspects. It is at once instructive, mon- 
itory, and encouraging. The chapter on " Zion's Infants " is specially op- 
portune at the present day. 

A 



"WORKS BY THE AUTHOR. 

[From the Christ Ian Mirror.] 
This is a delightful little manual for a citizen of Zion. 



[From the CongregationaUst.] 

"We are glad to see that this beautiful and useful volume has met with 
such public favor as to have reached its fourth edition. Our readers who 
are not already familiar with it, will find it a valuable assistant in growth 
in grace. 



"ZION'S PATHWAY." 

12mo. 5 00, pages. 
[From the Christian Times, Boston, Mass.] 
It is one of the very best treatises of the present age upon practical relig- 
ion, and we cordially commend it to the attention of the public. The cir- 
culation of such a book cannot fail to do good service to the cause of truth 
and holiness. 

[From the New York Evangelist] 
The work is a concise, perspicuous, practical system of divinity, begin- 
ning with the Divine existence, and concluding with the judgment; and its 
special value consists as well in the order and connection in which the sev- 
eral doctrines are adjusted, and the relative location and importance assigned 
to each, as in its lucid, brief, and often eminently happy definitions and 
reasonings. It partakes but little of a polemic character, though the 
various points are often fortified with remarkable conclusiveness of reason- 
ing; its chief design is rather didactic — pleasantly, plainly, and affection- 
ately to open the truths of revelation, and to apply them to the believer's 
spiritual edification. The work will be decidedly useful to young Chris- 
tians, and for the instruction of the family, as well as for Bible Classes. 
Indeed, as a book for ready consultation, and for practical perusal, it is 
among the clearest and most satisfactory that we know of. There is a 
moderation in definition, and a kindliness and candor in statement, that 
will go far to conciliate the reader's good will, whatever he may think of 
the truths it dwells upon. 

[From the Parlor Magazine.] 

Looking at Scripture doctrines altogether in their practical aspects, as 

related to the growth, comfort, and safety of their recipient, the author has 

presented them in a form best adapted to win the assent of all who love the 

truth. He has not assumed the polemic attitude, nor scarcely the dog- 



WORKS BY THE AUTHOR. 3 

matic; the spirit with which he undertakes the discussion is that of a 
friendly adviser, an assistant in promoting a clearer conception of truths in 
which all have an interest, and in removing the difficulties with which they 
are invested. There is no solvent of difficulties like candor and love; and 
in the simplest way the author sometimes cleaves asunder obscurities which 
learned reasoning would only tend to aggravate. For a pleasant, practical, 
and complete compendium of systematic theology, popularly stated and il- 
lustrated, we hardly know where we could look for a better. Its use in the 
Bible class and the family would tend greatly to promote sm interest in the- 
ological study, and to clothe the doctrines of revelation with an inviting 
aspect. 



[From the Christian 21irror, Portland, Me.] 
It seems to us a very desirable family book, and admirably fitted to en- 
lighten those who have not time to read many long treatises, and yet are 
under a moral necessity of knowing what religion is, considered theoretically 
or experimentally, or as a rule of life. 



[From Rev. J. Perkins, D. D., Oroomiah.] 
I know not the volume that contains a greater variety and amount of 
precious truth in so attractive a garb. I know not the book better fitted to 
instruct the family and Sabbath School teacher, and edify the Christian in 
his closet. 



MEMOIR OF REV. 0. A. TAYLOR. 

Two Editions. 12nio. 400 and 556 pages. 

[From the Puritan Recorder. ,] 
Mr. Taj-lor, while he was an enthusiastic scholar, was yet an humble man 
of God, possessing likewise great natural ingenuousness and transparency 
of character. The predominance of these features in the pleasing portrait- 
ure, or rather fac-simile of him, which we have before us in this memoir, is 
but the natural effect of the faithful and judicious manner in which it has 
been compiled, by making it to consist largely of extracts from the diary 
and letters of the deceased. 



[From the Congregationalist.) 
It is an admirable monument of a true scholar and a fervent Christian, 
whose memory should be preserved among us. It will become one of the 
standard memoirs of the day. 



WORKS BY THE AUTHOR. 

[From the Christian Mirror.] 
We should anticipate great benefits to the church from its general perusal. 



[From the New York Evangelist.] 
We think it a most instructive biography, worthy of the study of can- 
didates for the ministry, and interesting to all who take interest in that 
sublimest of spectacles — the struggle of a heart towards God and holiness. 



[From the Independent] 
An excellent presentation of an excellent man. 



[From the New Englander.] 
We are glad that it has been given to the world. It cannot fail to give 
encouragement to learning; to animate and cheer the struggling student; 
to edify the Christian; to impress upon all the importance of religious 
principle. 



[From the Bibliotheca Sacra.] 
The most valuable legacy bequeathed us by Mr. Taylor is the example 
of one gifted with uncommon abilities and lofty aspirations, born in poverty, 
struggling against the barriers of circumstances, overcoming insuperable 
obstacles, making, by dint of unwearied effort, extensive acquisitions in the 
fields of science, — especially of sacred literature, — and humbly conse- 
crating all to his Master's service. We think the Memoir of Mr. Taylor 
cannot fail to take rank among our best religious biographies. 



[From Professor Park, Andover, Mass.] 
I have read the memoir with very great pleasure. 



[From Professor Tyler, Amherst College.] 
It is the life not only of a scholar and a Christian, but also of a man and 
hero, so courageously did he battle with poverty, and difficulty, and oppo- 
sition, and discouragement of every sort. The author has done well in 
making the subject, to so great an extent, his own biographer. The journal 
and letters of Mr. T. show us his whole mind and heart. 



WORKS BY THE AUTHOR. 5 

[From Professor Hackett, Newton Theological Seminary.] 
It cannot fail to exert a beneficial influence wherever it is read, and I 
trust sincerely it may receive a wide circulation. 



[From Professor D. T. Smith, Bangor Theological Seminary.} 

It is one of the few books, which, when I take up, I hardly know how to 
lay down. 

[From J. Pearson, Librarian, Union College.] 
I have read your book with great interest and satisfaction, and desire to 
thank you personally for the justice you have done to the memory of so 
worthy a man, and for the good that must follow from so bright an example 
of learning and piety. Biography is my favorite reading, and I must assure 
you that for many a day I have not met with a work more to my mind. 



[From Rev. Dr. Beckwitli, Boston, Mass.] 
I cannot refrain from saying, in a word, how much I feel obliged to the 
author for this contribution to the biographical treasures of the church and 
her ministry. I am truly glad he has embalmed his brother's memory in a 
book for the world, and for coming ages. 



[From Rev. T. Shepard, D. D., Bristol, R. I] 
No one can take up the volume without feeling an intense interest in the 
subject of the work, from his birth up to the hour of his happy release from 
the toils of earth, and peaceful entrance into rest. Many a young man, 
thirsting for an education, yet without the adequate funds for such an under- 
taking, will feel encouraged to set about creating the means, and not be 
disheartened because he is poor. 



[From Rev. J. Perkins, D. D., Missionary at Oroomiah.] 
The Memoir of such a man — in most respects so good a model of a 
Christian, a scholar, and a pastor — cannot fail to accomplish vast good. 
The preparation of it seems to me to be very successful. 



[From Deacon Joseph, Oroomiah.] 
The Memoir of your learned brother did me a great deal of good. His 
pietv, his thirst for knowledge in his youth, are all a very worthy pattern, 

A* 



b WORKS BY THE AUTHOR. 

[From Dr. Lobdell, Missionary at Mosul] 
It is of peculiar value as it so well illustrates " the pursuit of knowledge 
under difficulties." I shall take occasion to recommend it to several young 
men of my acquaintance whose circumstances and ambition are very 
similar to what his were. 



[From Rev. W. S. Scliavffler, Missionary at Constantinople.] 
Among the very few books which I have had time and strength to peruse 
is your volume, [the Memoir,] with which I was very much pleased, and I 
trust profited. 



OUR HOLY HILL. 



THE GOSPEL JUSTLY CLAIMS THE. 
HOMAGE OF THE WORLD. 



The Origin of the GospeL 

It originated in eternity with God ; in his omni- 
science, wisdom, and benevolence. Man's sinfulness 
was foreseen by the Almighty prior to its existence. 
From the divine preknowledge there can be no con- 
cealment. Infinite wisdom provided the gospel plan 
as fittest to bring glory to the Godhead in the man- 
ifestation of the most extensive benevolence to the- 
human family. In it is embraced all which he, 
whose name is Love, saw best to devise for the re- 
demption of a lost race. During the eternal ages of 
their existence, the perfections of him, who is immu-« 
tably good and infinitely great, have been able to 
purpose no more. 

Not only is this scheme as a whole — but in all its 
minuteness — of divine origin. Nothing was left 
to human invention or modification. Long before' 

1 



2 OUR HOLY HILL. 

the sun had illumined this earth, was Bethlehem 
ordained as the place of Messiah's birth, and the star 
which guided the Magi to the manger of the infant 
Jesus appointed to that office. Ages ere an angel 
had a voice to sing, or wings to fly, was that anthem 
compo ed, which the celestial choir sang to Judea's 
shepherds. Those very aspects in the life and death 
of the Redeemer which excite in us the deepest 
sympathy for him, and arouse our souls to the greatest 
horror of his persecutors, were, in every particular, 
component parts of the eternal design in regard to 
his incarnation, humiliation, and atoning death. In 
all Christ's career there were no fortuitous events. 

Men of ignorant daring and of wilful falsification 
have affirmed that much of the gospel is borrowed 
from the religious systems of idolatrous nations. 
Every maxim, law, persuasive, promise, interdict, 
and threatening, emanated from the throne of the 
Almighty, where they were prepared for transmis- 
sion into time ; prepared before sin had defiled Eden, 
or rebel angels had been driven from their shining 
seats. It is common for mortals to attempt a justifi- 
cation of their own iniquity by defaming the institu- 
tions of religion, and by attributing them to a false 
source. Some, in the arrogance of their blindness, 
have affirmed that the Supreme Being is indebted to 
the ancient Egyptians for his own most expressive 
•name — Jehovah. 



The Mode of the GospeVs Introduction among Men. 

Here it should be observed that the doctrines con- 
stituting this system were gradually developing for 



CLAIMS OF THE GOSPEL. 3 

thousands of years before it was presented in its 
completeness. Patriarchs were, in a measure, recipi- 
ents of the gospel ; prophets preached it, and all the 
saints of the first dispensation became regenerate and 
sanctified through its provisions. All parts of the 
Bible are from the same source, and are harmonious 
in their teachings. The revelations of divine truth 
made prior to the advent of the Messiah, and the 
mode in which they were communicated, were such 
as should command the homage of all men. It is 
supposed, with good reason, that the second person 
in the Godhead was often actually visible to human 
sight in the period of the patriarchs and holy seers. 
On this point there is no necessity for us now to 
dwell. It is obvious that to Christ the world is in- 
debted for its possession of the gospel. He trans- 
ferred this system of doctrines from heaven to earth. 

Having considered the origin of the gospel, let us 
contemplate for a moment the character of him from 
whom we have received it ; him, who was commis- 
sioned in the counsels of eternity to reveal it to this 
rebellious world. 

The name Christ imports more than the tongue of 
man can utter or his intellect conceive. It is he who 
" was in the beginning with God and was God," — 
" He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the 
Last ; " and " is over all, God blessed for ever." 
Every attribute ascribed to the Most High is by In- 
spiration declared to belong to the Lord Jesus. 

This Redeemer of men was as God seated upon a 
throne, holy and high ; before him, adoring seraphs 
bowed; he was attired in the robes of eternal royalty, 
and held the sceptre of unlimited dominion; his 



4 OUR HOLY HILL. 

mandates were the law of the universe. But from 
that throne he arose ; laying down his sceptre and 
divesting himself of his robes, he descended to the 
earth, appearing in the form of a servant, though 
executing works demanding the truest divinity. 
Diseases fled at his word. To the blind he gave 
sight ; to the deaf, hearing ; to the dumb, speech ; 
and to the palsied, the power which had been lost. 
Demoniacs retreated at his ordering ; winds and 
waves listened obediently to his voice, and the dead 
returned to life at his summons. 

Having completed his work among men, he reas- 
cended to the heaven of heavens. The closing scenes 
of his terrestrial career are not in themselves adapted 
to gratify the feeling, so common to man — a feeling 
of pride in a victorious leader. Jesus was betrayed, 
denied, condemned, and crucified, most ignomin- 
iously ; still, he that rightly appreciates the purpose 
of the Calvary scene will perceive in that scene an 
unanswerable argument in favor of the claims of the 
gospel to universal homage. Let an appeal be made 
to the seraphs, that press nearest to the eternal throne 
for an explication of the crucifixion of Christ. Will 
not they refer to the message which an angel 
brought to Palestine, when the infant Immanuel was 
cradled in a manger : " Behold, I bring you good tid- 
ings of great joy, which shall be to all people ; " and 
to the responsive strains uttered, on the same oc- 
casion, by a multitude of the heavenly host : " Glory 
to God in the highest; on earth, peace, good-will 
toward men." 

Hear the announcement of the divine sufferer him- 
self : " It is finished." On the cross was completed 



CLAIMS OF THE GOSPEL. O 

the work, which the omniscient, the all-wise, and the 
infinitely benevolent God saw essential for the open- 
ing of heaven to our lost race. 

Never did the second person in the Trinity appear 
in view of holy intelligences more worthy of honor 
than when passing through the various stages of hu- 
miliation and abasement requisite to the accomplish- 
ment of his merciful enterprise. Behold the celestial 
dove descending upon him : " And, lo, a voice from 
heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased." 

Lift your eyes to that world, where dwelt this Son 
in the bosom of the Father, before his mission to 
men. Thither has he returned as a mediator, and 
is highly exalted : " He hath on his vesture and on 
his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of 
lords." The Scriptures explicitly declare, that at his 
name, " every knee should bow, of things in heaven 
and things in earth and things under the earth — 
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus 
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 

One other consideration respecting him, who came 
on this gospel embassy to men, may be here adduced 
in the illustration of the topic before us. That Being 
who was once on earth as Messiah, and now reigns 
mediatorially, is to reappear in this world. " Behold, 
he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him." 
The dead, small and great, of every age and nation, 
are to be called into his presence. Those who shall 
be alive at his return will be changed, and every 
human being will be arraigned at his judgment bar. 
Then shall the eternal destiny of each be decided ; 
recipients of the gospel going with the judge into 

1* 



6 OUR HOLY HILL. 

heaven, and its rejecters being banished into quench- 
less fire. 

In view, then, of the exalted origin of this divine 
system of truths, and in view of the method by 
which it has become the possession of mankind, does 
it not justly claim the homage of every person ? 



TJie Effects of the Gospel. 

These are numerous and various, but uniformly in 
.a high degree beneficial. 

it clearly reveals God to man. Nature proclaims 
"the Divine existence. He is blind, deaf, and stu- 
pid who, though never having seen the Bible, does 
not believe in an infinite Creator, and adore him as 
the only proper object of worship. Still facts prove, 
that, without a special revelation, many reject the 
evidence furnished by natural religion respecting the 
Divine existence. Jehovah they will not honor. 
•Gods of every shape and size are manufactured by 
■human ingenuity, and idolized by the descendants of 
a once holy ancestry. While the gospel ever recog- 
nizes the existence of a Supreme Being, as fully at- 
tested by his works, it makes him known as Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost ; the one God ; the God of 
salvation. It does not inform us how the Eternal ex- 
ists, either in Trinity or in Unity. We do not sup- 
pose it possible that finite minds should comprehend 
these truths. But it is within the ability of even 
common intellects to receive the scriptural statement 
of any fact. It is no more impossible to believe that 
Jesus Christ has two natures in one person than it is 
to believe in his existence at all. In each case we 



CLAIMS OF THE GOSPEL. 7 

are dependent on Divine testimony, which is ever 
satisfactory to unprejudiced minds. Human acumen 
can discern, if it will, the significancy of the Divine 
teaching on all points embraced in the gospel. 
Christ's true humanity and absolute Divinity are 
presented as an essential feature in this system of 
doctrines. Wherever Christ's divinity is rejected, the 
gospel becomes a practical nullity. God is also re- 
vealed as existing in a third person, called the Holy 
Spirit. To acquaint man with the attributes and 
agency of this person in the Godhead is a peculiar 
office of the gospel. The fact of the Spirit's exist- 
ence and agency is derivable from no other source 
of instruction. 

The gospel reveals man to himself. Left to the 
mere light of nature, human beings realize not 
their high origin, nor their acountability or destiny. 
They exist, vaguely conjecturing what may have 
been in the distant past, and what awaits them in 
the approximate future. In the system of doctrines 
now under consideration, the darkness shrouding these 
questions is dispelled. Man's parentage is revealed ; 
a long line of ancestors, running back to the original 
head, is portrayed before us. We are told of the per- 
fection of the first progenitors of the race, and also of 
their primal sin. Inspiration attempts not to lead us 
into the metaphysical intricacies of descended native 
depravity. Omniscience sees the matter clearly ; but 
we do not believe that any thing short of a Divine at- 
tribute can see the mode of transmission. Still it is 
plainly a sentiment of the gospel, that the poison 
imbibed by the first terrestrial sinners has transfused 
itself into all the millions of their descendants ; so 



8 OUR HOLY HILL. 

that they are sinners by nature ; are morally denied 
from their earliest rational existence. We are thus 
assured that our very natures are inherently contami- 
nated ; are not simply not holy, but positively obnox- 
ious to the moral law. However mortifying this fact 
may be, that it is a fact is none the less certain be- 
cause of its humiliating nature. 

This Divine system reveals to man his connection 
with the eternal future ; asserting the deathless des- 
tiny of the soul, the resurrection of the body^ and 
the interminable existence of both conjointly. What 
obscurity characterized the minds of the wisest hea- 
then, touching the state subsequent to the death of 
the body! They were not certain of existence at all, 
though the instinctive feeling of rational beings 
probably inclined them to expect an interminable 
continuance of their consciousness. Furthermore, 
what should be the condition of the immortal part 
on the oiher side of death's dark waters, if such a 
part there might be, was 'to them a matter of wild 
conjecture. Some they knew died under the frown 
of the gods. Perhaps the souls of many would pass 
through ceaseless transmigrations ; now tenants of 
beasts ; now of birds ; and now of reptiles. Indi- 
viduals guilty of heinous offences they judged were, 
in certain instances, sentenced to terrific penalties. 
One is fastened to a wheel, destined to whirl perpet- 
ually ; another must roll to the summit of a hill a 
ponderous rock, which invariably rebounds upon him 
just as he seems completing his task ; a third groans 
in hopeless despair beneath the oppressive weight of 
Mount iEtna, which some ireful divinity has laid 
upon him ; a fourth is forever tantalized with golden 



CLAIMS OF THE GOSPEL. 9 

fruit, which eludes his grasp as he is seizing it to check 
the direst hunger, and with flowing water, that seems 
ready to allay his burning thirst till the moment his 4 
lips are upon the very point of tasting it, and then it 
glides from him. 

Socrates expected to exist after the extinction of 
his vital flame. Yet the highest anticipation which 
he could indulge was that of meeting with Homer, 
Orpheus, Museus, Hesiod, and other celebrated per- 
sons who had passed from time before him. Cicero 
supposed that the soul, when released from its taber- 
nacle of clay, would continue to ascend, till it should 
find an equilibrium somewhere among the stars. 
Sublime sentiment ! But how much more so is that 
which the Bible can inspire ! 

" Ye stars are but the shining dust 
Of my divine abode ; 
The pavement of those heavenly courts 
Where I shall see my God." 

The gospel reveals to man the only way to 
heaven. To glorify God in the salvation of men is 
its grand design. It is the only remedy for moral 
evil. If sinners are not saved by this means, they 
must perish eternally. Herein has been, is now, and 
must be, the sole hope for a lost world. With devout 
thankfulness let it be proclaimed, that this scheme 
has been no failure touching its grand aim. When 
it dismissed the cherubim and the " flaming sword 
which turned every way to keep the way of the tree 
of life," and bade the race of Adam return from their 
expulsion out of Eden and partake of the heavenly 
fruit, it did not utter an ineffectual invitation. Mill- 



10 OUR HOLY HILL. 

ions, availing themselves of the privilege, have ap- 
proached, plucked, eaten, and are enjoying, eternal 
life. All along the line of generations, since the 
Saviour was first promised, there have been recipi- 
ents of saving mercy. No efforts on the part of hos- 
tile agencies to resist God's method of grace towards 
man have been able to prevent its producing effects, 
legitimate and extensive. Truth is two-edged. There 
are no means by which its strokes can be warded off, 
when the Omnipotent Spirit wields it. 

In order to witness the striking effects of the gos- 
pel, in its renovating influence upon individuals, we 
have only to select instances from the numerous 
examples afforded us by familiar history. Take, for 
illustration, the case of Henry Obookiah. He was cast 
upon these American shores, an ignorant, degraded 
heathen, but here became a subject of those gracious 
influences which come only through God's remedial 
system. Behold him a penitent, pouring out his soul 
in fervent prayer ; hear him as he walks in the fields, 
exclaiming with holy rapture, " Whom have I in 
heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I 
desire besides thee." He could testify to the last, 
" My faith holds out." Who has not admired the 
grace which has so often, in the history of our nation, 
changed the savage of the wilderness into the meek 
disciple of the Prince of peace ? That breast, which 
revenge had ruled for many a year, becomes the 
peaceful abode of a forgiving spirit, of supreme love 
to God, and of an affection for the brotherhood of 
man, such as Christ himself possessed and enjoined. 
What happy transitions have been occasioned by the 
doctrines of this system, wherever they have been pro- 



CLAIMS OF THE GOSPEL. 11 

claimed! Dagon is unable to stand in the presence 
of the ark of the Lord. Idolatrous prophets who 
have called upon their imaginary deity for help, cry- 
ing from morning till noon in vain, saying, O Baal, 
hear us, when the truth is brought before them by a 
herald of redeeming goodness are constrained to ex- 
claim, " The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God." 

The gospel is daily changing lions into lambs, 
vultures into doves, and demons into angels, in myr- 
iads of communities. Wherever is a regenerate 
child of Jehovah, there is a living effect of the gospel. 
Whatever be his terrene condition, the impress of the 
eternal Father is upon him. Of the bread which 
came down from heaven has he eaten ; and of the 
water that springs up unto eternal life has he drank. 
When so morally diseased, that from the sole of his 
foot even unto the crown of his head there was no 
soundness in him, he was brought to Gilead's balm 
and to the physician there. Now he is healed, and 
shall be sick no more. 

Death is the king of terrors ; but the soul that is 
enlightened by the Sun of Righteousness, as he shines 
in the gospel, fears not the darkness of the valley in 
which this monarch reigns, nor the sting of the mon- 
ster himself. 

" Hark, they whisper, angels say, 
Sister spirit, come away." 

It is a message from the skies. The silver cord is 
loosed; the golden bowl is broken ; the mortal is for- 
saken by the immortal ; and this, borne on cherubic 



12 OUR HOLY HILL. 

wings, mounts up to the Majesty on high, there to 
dwell and enjoy a perpetuity of unsullied bliss. 

" O ransomed spirit, when thy flight we trace, 
Our tears are dried ; we bless redeeming grace." 

In the accomplishment of this, its grand design, 
the glory of God in the salvation of individuals, the 
gospel renovates human society. What but the gos- 
pel has converted the degraded immortals of the 
Pacific Isles into respectable human beings ? How 
quickly can Divine truth literally attire in beautiful 
garments debased heathen ! God's word causes pri- 
meval forests to flee away, and towns, villages, and 
cities to arise in their stead. The effects of the gos- 
pel, how manifold, how benign! Every sanctuary, 
dedicated to the true Jehovah, is an effect, the holy 
influence of which may be felt when the sounding 
of the judgment trumpet shall have been left millions 
of ages in the past. Reforms, deserving the name, 
all grow out of this gospel. Benevolence is its own 
offspring. We cannot safely confide in any moral 
enterprise, however high its pretensions, which does 
not bow reverently to the cross of Christ. Let the 
truth as it is in Jesus be triumphant in the earth, 
then shall the beauty and blessedness of Eden be 
restored. 

Animating indeed are the predictions, which in- 
spired men have left on record for the encouragement 
of those who desire the world's deliverance from 
Satan's dominion. In glowing strains we are told : 
" It shall come to pass in the last days, that the 



CLAIMS OF THE GOSPEL. 13 

mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in 
the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above 
the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." " Nation/ 
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall 
they learn war any more." " The wilderness and the 
solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert 
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." 

We are not taught to expect another dispensation ;• 
but we are assured that under the present, piety shall 
universally prevail ; that Christ's kingdom shall be 
triumphant in the earth. From the rising of the sun 
to its * going down, shall yet be heard an unbroken 
anthem of praise from a world subject to the Lamb 
of God ; God the Lamb. To the effecting of such a 
grand result, the gospel is now progressing in its sub- 
lime simplicity and by its inherent, irresistible ener- 
gies. 

But prophecy stops not with the announcement 
that the nations shall own and welcome the Son of 
God as their King and Redeemer; it opens to our 
view visions of the heavenly state. We are made to. 
see on the celestial Zion, a multitude so great that 
no man can number it ; " of all nations and kindreds, 
and people and tongues," who stand " before the 
throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
robes, and palms in their hands." Our ears are per- 
mitted to hear their exulting shouts of salvation to 
Jehovah and to Jesus. Joining with the angelic 
hosts, the saved utter the highest anthem of which 
finite beings are capable : " Blessing and glory and 
wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and 
might be unto our God, for ever and ever." The 
redeemed, when, once in glory, we are assured, re- 



14 OUR HOLY HILL. 

main there. In the city that needs not the light of 
those orbs which illumine the solar system, the city 
that admits no tears or sorrow, that excludes every 
curse, they shall reign for ever with their sovereign 
Lord and Saviour. 



THE SINAITIC TABLES. 

In Arabia, says a traveller, there is a range of 
ragged and venerable mountains of dark granite, 
the stern, naked, splintered peaks and ridges of which 
possess indescribable grandeur. The landscape 
around, he adds, is barren and frightfully mournful. 

From some part of this group of earth's towers 
was the Moral Law openly proclaimed by its Au- 
thor. And it is believed to be now satisfactorily as- 
eertained on which one of these summits were con- 
centrated the sublime accompaniments of the occa- 
sion, when Jehovah publicly announced, and then 
wrote with his own finger, this divine code. Only 
jone position meets all the requirements of the Scrip- 
ture narrative, and that one does, in every essential 
particular. It is, however, but recently that monkish 
superstition, tradition, and inversion of facts, have 
been made to yield to scientific and biblical investi- 
gation. 

In the third month after the egress of the Israelites 
from Egypt, they arrived at the base of the moun- 
tain range already specified. The explorer, to whom 



THE SINAITIC TABLES. 15 

we are indebted for the discovery of what is, doubt- 
less, the identical peak whence the law was pro- 
mulged, followed the route of the Lord's people to 
Sinai. " Here is room enough for a large encamp- 
ment," he exclaimed, on his arrival. 

Horeb is the scriptural name of the whole range, 
and is now applied, but incorrectly, to that section 
which is the Sinai of the Bible. Three summits lift 
" their heads above the whole chain." One of them, 
with a " bold and awful front," rises up perpendicu- 
larly, and in " frowning majesty," from twelve to 
fifteen hundred feet. This was the footstool of the 
Eternal, when he delivered to Israel, and to the 
world, the imperishable Decalogue. So near does 
the plain come to the commencement of the perpen- 
dicular ascent, that Sinai is a " mount that might be 
touched." 1 

Behold the millions of Israel encamped beneath 
this sublime structure of rock ! Now is fulfilling 
what the Lord had predicted to Moses, when the lat- 
ter was yet a shepherd, and his flock had been led to 
u the back side of the desert " — near to " the moun- 
tain of God, even to Horeb." It was said to him : 
" When thou hast brought forth the people out of 
Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." 
Ex. 3 : 12. 

A great event is to take place on Sinai, and special 
preparations are appointed for the people. During 
the preliminaries Moses is more than once called up 
into the mount, in order that he may receive instruc- 
tions for the vast assembly. " Lo, I come unto thee in a 

1 See Robinson's Biblical Researches. 



16 OUR HOLY HILL. 

thick cloud" — "Go unto the people, and sanctify them 
to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes, 
and be ready against the third day." Bounds are set 
about the base of the mountain. Not a man or a 
beast must touch it. At length the designated time 
seems to have come, and the wonderful exhibition 
begins. A thick cloud rests upon the mount ; light- 
nings blaze ; thunders roar, and a trumpet peals with 
tones exceeding loud, and Jehovah descends upon 
Sinai amid fire and smoke, the mount quaking at his 
awful presence. Not at once, however, is the law 
proclaimed. Israel must be recautioned not to break 
through their bounds lest they perish. There is, as 
it were, a temporary cessation in the proceedings, that 
the people may be charged anew. Moses brings them 
out of the camp to meet with God ; they are placed 
at the " nether part of the mount," and then their 
leader is summoned by God to reascend the mount, 
to receive cautions for the millions beneath. All 
these preliminaries and apparent interruptions are 
designed to awe the beholders with a sense of the 
severe sanctity pertaining to the Decalogue. Haste 
is never a characteristic of the Almighty. Yet there is 
no actual delaying of his purposes ; no checking of 
his proceedings. 

At length the moment actually arrives ; the mo- 
ment chosen in eternity when the first of the ten 
commandments should be openly announced. Moses 
and the hosts of Jacob's descendants are beholders 
and listeners at the foot of Sinai. The Maker, Up- 
holder, and Governor of the universe is arrayed in 
terrible majesty on its summit. Angels are there ; 
attendants of their infinite sovereign. While all the 



THE SINAITIC TABLES. 17 

region around seems crushing beneath the thunders ; 
while the trumpet tones are going forth and reverberat- 
ing, peal upon peal ; while the lightnings are flashing, 
and the mountain is burning, but not consuming; 
while the people are so overwhelmed by what they see 
and hear, that they plead for an intercessor, and 
w^hile Moses, the only one who can act such a part 
for them, is compelled to say, " I exceedingly fear 
and quake," the separate precepts of the inimitable 
Code are uttered by God from the summit of Sinai. 
One by one they light upon the people at its base. 

But it will not suffice to leave these precepts to 
float about on the wings of the wind ; nor will it be 
safe to intrust them simply to the fortuities of tra- 
dition. By some method, they must be preserved in- 
violate. Every word of this law has an import, the 
value of which can never be overestimated. How 
shall the Decalogue be secured from the contingen- 
cies to which it might naturally be subject ? Lo, its 
Author assumes the office of its Preserver. 

On the top of Sinai are preparations for another 
display of celestial royalty. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, 
Abihu, and seventy elders, are called into a part of 
the mount to worship u afar off." Nothing in this 
world can surpass ttie magnificence of the new mani- 
festation. There is less of the lightning and thunder, 
and trumpet-tones, but " the glory of the Lord was like 
devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of 
the children of Israel." 

It is said of Moses and those with him in the " afar 
off" part of the mount, that they " saw the God of 
Israel, and there was under his feet as it were a 
2* 



18 OUR HOLY HILL. 

paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the 
body of heaven in his clearness." 

Moses and Joshua were summoned unto greater 
nearness to the Divine Presence, and then were de- 
tained at some point below the top of the mount for 
six days, but on the seventh, Moses " went into the 
midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount," 
where he remained " forty days and forty nights." 

The object of God in calling Moses to the top of 
Sinai, in the manner just described, seems to have 
been the giving to him of the " two tables of testi- 
mony, tables of stone written with the finger of God," 
and the communicating to him numerous instructions 
for the erection of the Tabernacle. 

Such in substance were the circumstances under 
which the Sovereign of all worlds judged proper to 
communicate the Moral Laiv. He had written it 
from the first on the tablets of men's souls. Nor has 
he ever himself effaced it from these tablets ; nor has 
he suffered sin to do it ; still the law thus inscribed is 
generally unheeded. Passion is the monarch of the 
soul, and draws dark lines over God's writing, drown- 
ing by its own tumultuous surges the interpreting and 
enforcing voice of Conscience. 



Characteristics of the Moral Law. 

The law is holy. It emanated from a holy God, 
and is appropriately regarded as a transcript of his 
own moral character. How pure are these precepts ! 
Had they been uniformly observed by all accounta- 
ble beings, so far as the nature of the case would per- 



THE SINAITIC TABLES. 19 

mit, sin could not have entered the universe. It was 
the transgression of the spirit of this code, which 
formed the primal act of rebellion in the empire 
of Jehovah. Wickedness is everywhere a violation 
of the moral law, and all failures of conformity to it, 
whether in act, word, thought, or feeling, are sin. 

This law is just. Let each one of the ten precepts 
be inspected ; yea, analyzed, that its real nature may 
be developed. Will not each appear just ? Can it 
be unjust for an intelligent, accountable, dependent 
creature to be required to worship his Creator, and no 
other being or object ? Has not the Supreme Ruler 
an obvious, inalienable right to demand the homage 
of all hearts, and the service of every rational power 
with which he has endowed man or angel ? Did not 
God create intelligent beings to honor him ? Can 
they withhold their praises from him without doing 
violence to their consciences, and degrading their na- 
tures ? Might not Jehovah be chargeable with un- 
kindness to his moral subjects, if he were to allow 
them to disobey such a law with impunity ? 

This law is good. Being holy and just, it must be 
inherently good. It is also good in its influence ; 
every way benign. Wherever the Decalogue is made 
the rule of life, there peace and righteousness reign. 
God is feared and loved ; the community is happy in 
his smiles, and all the people mutually rejoice. There 
is carried out the golden rule, which is indeed only 
an epitome of the second table of the Decalogue. 
Let God's law become the universal guide, and wick- 
edness will be banished from society. Such a code 
must be good. 



20 OUR HOLY HILL. 

Tlie Offender in one point guilty of all. 

It is proper that notice be here taken of a passage 
in the Epistle of James, which has been an occasion 
of cavil, if not of real perplexity. " For whosoever 
shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, 
he is guilty of all." 

The following suggestions are submitted : — (1) 
Though the Decalogue, as this name implies, contain 
ten distinct precepts, it is one law, is a whole, having 
constituent parts. God gave the whole of it at one 
time. We have no evidence that he is partial to any 
particular part of it. (2) Only one penalty is affixed 
to this law. " Cursed is every one that continueth not 
in all things which are written in the book of the law to 
do them." " The soul that sinneth it shall die." Hu- 
man legislatures enact various laws, and append pen- 
alties, graduated, they suppose, according to the hein- 
ousness of the offence by which any particular enact- 
ment is violated. But God's law is one, and its pen- 
alty is the same, whatever be the prohibited act perpe- 
trated by the transgressor. (3) The disposition that 
breaks the law is the same, whatever be the com- 
mand violated. Christ has told us that supreme love 
to God, and a love for our fellow-beings like that 
which we are authorized to cherish for ourselves, 
constitute the keeping of the law. Paul says that 
" love is the fulfilling of the law." It is evident, there- 
fore, that the law is duly kept only when the heart is 
in unison with its requirements and prohibitions. 
Externally, nine of these precepts may be observed 
with much apparent strictness, while the remaining 



THE SIXAITIC TABLES. 21 

one is violated. "Why did hostility develop itself 
against that one ? Simply because it obstructed the 
path of the transgressor. Any other precept might 
have received the same treatment. One passion is 
impeded by this part of the Decalogue, another by 
that ; but the spirit within a man which can impel him 
to break one commandment, will impel him to break 
the ten, if they happen to be in his way. He has no 
love for the law of God, and consequently, while out- 
wardly regarding nine of the specifications, he hates 
the whole Decalogue. The overt act in respect to 
one part shows that he does not keep any of it, 
though he happens to be outwardly innocent with re- 
gard to much of it. 

The teacher of a school lays down ten rules for the 
government of his scholars. Soon it is observed, that, 
while no one pupil is guilty of violating every regula- 
tion, among a company of ten, these rules are all 
broken. Each is morally guilty of all, because he 
would have disregarded any other, and every other 
precept just as quickly, if it had been in his way. 
Those ten transgressors are prepared to change places 
ten times in their outward deportment, till each one 
shall have actually broken the ten precepts of the 
Decalogue which that teacher has inculcated. 

We may also illustrate the point by reference to 
the parent and his child. It is the right of the former 
to govern, and the duty of the latter to practise uni- 
form obedience. But we perceive that sometimes 
the child obeys, and then is disobedient, while to us 
the same reason exists for obedience at all times. 
Wherefore is there such contrariety of conduct ? Is 
it not owing to the fact that one direction of the par- 



22 OUR HOLY HILL. 

ent falls in with the child's own thoughts of doing 
or refraining ? "Would not every parental word be 
contemned by that child, if the latter supposed his 
own pleasure thereby opposed? Is an obedience, 
which is only occasional, and as convenience may 
suggest, better than permanent obstinacy ? An 
obedient disposition prompts a child to submit his 
own will, at all times, to the authority of his par- 
ent, whatever be the sacrifice demanded. A disobe- 
dient spirit is ever ready to resist restraining pre- 
cepts, though now and then it cheerfully complies, 
because selfishness can just then yield without much 
sacrifice. 

In the business affairs of life we frequently see 
persons showing an outward respect to parts of the 
Decalogue, but violating the remainder. Do they 
really honor that part which they seem to regard ? 
Not at all. The law is one, and man's moral nature 
has a oneness ; an indivisibility. It is impossible to 
love one half of a unit, and hate the other half. All 
violators of the Decalogue are under the dominion of 
the spirit that "worketh in the children of disobe- 
dience." Idolaters, profane swearers, Sabbath-break- 
ers, abusers of parents, murderers, adulterers, robbers, 
false witnesses, and the covetous, constitute a broth- 
erhood, whose hearts are one. Appropriately may 
they join hands, and salute each other as friends most 
dear. No secret society is so firmly confederate as 
are such persons. 

We do not say, that he who is known as an open 
violator of one command will certainly trample out- 
wardly upon the others ; but we do unhesitatingly as- 
sert, that if he do not thus treat them, it will be owing 



THE SINAITIC TABLES. 23 

to his not being tempted. He has no moral principle 
which will restrain him. Having wickedly set at 
nought one of the precepts of the law, he has shown 
himself hostile to them all. Sabbath-breakers may 
never become murderers in outward act ; still if the 
fourth commandment do not restrain a man from the 
profanation of holy time, the sixth does not save 
him from the crime of murder. Other influences 
may prevent him from incurring such guilt, if he be 
strongly tempted, but there is no fear of God before 
his eyes. 

A covetous man may be very zealous for the detec- 
tion of a thief, yet his own heart is no better in God's 
estimation than is that person's, after whom he eager- 
ly hastens in pursuit. Adulterers can raise a cry 
against false witnesses, but in Jehovah's balances the 
sin of the latter class may be lighter than that of the 
former. The violator of the seventh commandment 
will doubtless meet a doom more fearful than man 
can comprehend. 



This Law a Mirror. 

God's law is a mirror, into which every person 
should look and see himself. Whoever turns away 
from this, never obtains a true view of his own moral 
features. Where the law is not presented in its 
strictness, there can be no instances of deep convic- 
tion of sin. Apparent conversions from sin to holi- 
ness will be superficial. Consequently, no impres- 
sive sense will be gained of Christ as having 
atoned for sin. " For by the law is the knowl- 
edge of sin." " For I was alive without the law ; 



24 OUR HOLY HILL. 

but when the commandment came, sin revived and 
I died." 

He that will not preach the Law, cannot preach the 
Gospel. Sinners must listen to the thunders of Sinai, 
before they can be benefited by the accents from 
Calvary. Condemnation comes by the law. It 
dooms to endless woe every transgressor ; forgiveness 
comes by the cross, which furnishes life eternal to the 
contrite and believing. 

Christ made no war upon the law, though some ac- 
cuse him of doing it. Had he done it, himself would 
have incurred its awfulest malediction. It was nec- 
essary that he should keep it with perfect strictness, 
in order to prepare the way by which he might atone 
for sin. Some of his nominal followers have main- 
tained antinomian theories, and have practised ac- 
cordingly. But their refusal to recognize the moral 
law as the rule of their lives has proved them desti- 
tute of saving faith. It has well been said respect- 
ing the pious, that Christ delivers them from the curse 
of the law, but not from its command. Genuine dis- 
ciples of Jesus cannot desire to be freed from so much 
as one precept of the Decalogue. Conscious indeed 
they are of falling short in their attempts to render 
the obedience required. They see beauty and per- 
fection in the law, yet daily fly to Christ for ref- 
uge from its jus.t but fearful penalty ; and he shields 
them not by setting aside its claims, but by covering 
them with robes of his own perfect righteousness. 

Justification cannot be obtained by the law, hence 
sinners out of Christ are exposed continually to its 
unmitigated penalty. The Decalogue will pursue the 
hardened transgressor into eternity. Sinai's fire will 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 25 

there burn with quenchless fury. Jehovah can there 
relinquish none of his original claims on the obedi- 
ence of his subjects. 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, AND 
ORTHODOXY. 

No product of mind has perhaps been more ap- 
plauded than Christ's Sermon on the Mount. All 
classes of persons seem to join in extolling it. Those, 
however, who show unequivocally that they are des- 
titute of holiness are often the most enthusiastic in 
its praise. How are we to account for their zeal in. 
this particular ? Whence springs their love of these* 
utterances of our Lord ? Do they not indulge a mis- 
conception of the import of what he says ? Can it be 
that they apprehend his meaning? Would wicked 
people love this sermon if they understood it ? 

Christ in this sermon sustains fully all the doctrines 
of the Old Testament. He openly declares that he 
had not come to destroy the law or the prophets, and 
in these two terms he includes all which our Hebrew 
Bibles contain. He most solemnly affirms that he 
had " not come to destroy, but to fulfil," and adds, 
" Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle 
shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be ful- 
filled." After announcing what has been distin- 
guished by the honorable name, " The golden rule" 
Jesus tells us that it is only an epitome of the Old 
Testament. All which is therein written bearing 

3 



26 OUR HOLY HILL. 

upon the treatment which man should receive from 
his fellow man may be thus summed up : " All 
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and 
the prophets." Christ was a true commentator. No 
scholar in modern times understands so well as did 
he the import of what was written under the first 
dispensation. 

Where the superficial reader of this sermon might 
suppose the teachings of the Old Testament to be 
set aside, they are in fact confirmed. Pharisaical 
glosses are removed. The practice of private indi- 
viduals assuming the magistrate's prerogative, Jesus 
here rebukes. But he annuls none of the ancient 
divine enactments. On the contrary his hearers are 
made to feel that the law is heart-searching ; that the 
grossest sins may have been committed in God's 
sight, while not an outward intimation is given of it 
to any mortal. So far is Christ from loosening the 
ligatures which bind the moral law upon every man, 
that he tightens them all. We must, according to 
his instructions, part with a foot, a hand, an eye, 
whatever is dear to us, if it prove an occasion of our 
violating these holy statutes. The breaking of what 
some might consider the least of the commandments, 
and the encouraging of others in doing the same, 
shall cause the offender's utter exclusion from the 
kingdom of heaven. The calling of a fellow-being a 
fool, exposes the offender to the suffering of " hell- 
fire." The Scribes and Pharisees (extant when 
Christ preached on the Mount) he declared shut out 
of heaven, and he left the statement as a solemn 
warning for every subsequent age, that no person can 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 27 

be saved who has no better religion than that of 
those classes. 

Still how many, with not a tithe of as much relig- 
ion of any sort as those olden sinners possessed, are 
praising this sermon of Christ, and are expecting to 
reach heaven by reason of their own moral excel- 
lence ! They fancy that Jesus made the thoroughfare 
to the skies so broad that even hypocrites are surely 
in it ! But he widened not the ancient way cast up 
for the ransomed of the Lord. It still remains as it 
was. 

This sermon teaches, by direct statement or by clear 
implication, every doctrine of the evangelical system. 
The axe is here laid at the root of every corrupt tree 
which feeds men's souls with its poisonous fruit. 
The strictest Orthodoxy in religion that ever claimed 
for itself the stamp of Heaven is here inculcated. 
We affirm this fearlessly, and challenge proof of a 
contrary position. The unequivocal support which 
Christ gives, in this discourse, to the Old Testament 
in its entireness and to its individual parts, at once 
precludes all cavils about that portion of God's spe- 
cial revelation to man, and marks as infamous any 
opposition to it. It was all holy ; all infallible in 
Christ's estimation. Just so is it regarded in the 
Orthodox system, and quite differently by other sys- 
tems of religion. 

From general statements let us enter more into 
particulars. Our Saviour is himself very specific in 
this discourse. 

He begins with the heart. The beatitudes which 
form the introduction to the discourse can be claimed 
by none who are not in feeling utterly emptied of 



28 OUR HOLT HILL. 

sinful self. " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs 
is the kingdom of heaven." To such of all proba- 
tioners on earth, and to none others, will the pearly- 
gate open. No degree of excellence in art or science, 
in statesmanship, in military skill, or in any mere 
mental attainments, plumes a man for immortal joys. 
Not one of Christ's nine beatitudes falls upon such 
distinctions. It is the poor in spirit, the mourners 
over sin, the meek, the hungerers and thirsters after 
righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the 
peacemakers, the persecuted for righteousness' sake, 
those who are reviled on account of their religion, 
that Jesus declares blessed. Such, and none others, 
according to his teaching, are the spiritual children of 
the great Father. Has not Orthodoxy always re- 
ceived this teaching as true and important ? Does 
it not habitually reiterate the same doctrine ? 

This sermon informs us that regenerating grace, 
acting through the agency of its subjects, is the only 
morally renovating influence in the world. " Ye are 
the salt of the earth " — " ye are the light of the 
world." Ye ; who ? The renewed ! Those baptized 
by the Holy Ghost — the persons just pronounced 
blessed. Our Lord assures us that genuine piety is 
the only moral preservative of society, that gospel 
light is the only moral illuminator of men's souls. It 
is idle (according to Jesus) to attempt to reform com- 
munities, except by his doctrines and grace. Such is 
a sentiment of Orthodoxy, and all departures from this 
sentiment in practice have but illustrated (though 
negatively) its correctness. Human wickedness fears 
not the light of science. Civilization, without being 
preceded by grace, does little more than render man- 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 29 

kind increasingly formidable in wickedness. Moon- 
beams will sooner change the ice of polar regions into 
water, than human expedients transform sinful hearts 
and lives into fountains of godly affection, and exem- 
plifications of deep and sanctified principle. Has 
not Orthodoxy always entertained as true this doc- 
trine of Christ ? 

This sermon strikes with annihilating force at the 
pride of man. Of this fact, proof has been already 
adduced. We must loathe ourselves, before we can 
be blessed by Immanuel. We are forbidden to 
trumpet abroad our own good deeds ; must not 
permit the left hand to know what the right is doing, 
provided the former be disposed to applaud the latter. 
Our very prayers, we are told, become a curse if we 
make them for the sake of gaining human commen- 
dation. Christ in this sermon smites down every flag 
which our self-esteem hangs out ; he rends into shreds 
all the sails that we unfurl to the popular breath. He 
tells us, that, if we deck ourselves with all the orna- 
ments which art can afford, the very flowers of the 
field are more attractively arrayed than we. Does 
not Orthodoxy harmonize with this part of the ser- 
mon ? Tliis system teaches that humility is a pri- 
mary virtue, that God will abase the proud. 

The forgiveness of injuries, and the doing of good 
to enemies, are here inculcated as essentials in relig- 
ion. Not only must all who injure us be forgiven 
cheerfully, but we must love our enemies ; bless them 
that curse us. While others are engaged in impre- 
cating wrath upon us, we must invoke Heaven's favor 
upon them. We must do good, only good, and must 
do good continually. Further, Jesus tells us that it 

3* 



30 OUR HOLY HILL. 

is only by possessing such benevolence, and being 
constantly actuated by it, that we can be the spiritual 
children of him who " maketh his sun to rise on the 
evil and on the good ; and sendeth rain on the 
just and on the unjust." Is it not thus that Ortho- 
doxy believeth and teacheth ? 

The highest faith in God is here demanded. We 
are forbidden to be anxiously active about food and 
clothing. Our daily bread must be sought, as it is 
needed, from God's hand. Christ leaves, as he found, 
the old decree : " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
eat bread, till thou return unto the ground." But he 
^requires, that, while we pursue honest callings and 
practise due economy, we seek chiefly the kingdom 
of God and his righteousness, resigning our comforts 
and our lives to the disposal of him whose providence 
is universal and particular ; also, when needful, spe- 
cial. Does not Orthodoxy believe that God is the 
absolute Sovereign of all worlds, and yet that it is 
" in him we live and move and have our being ? " 
Does it not urge the exercise of the highest faith in 
God, as a duty ? 

Christ's Sermon on the Mount declares that it is 
difficult for us to reach "heaven. The way thither, it 
says, is narrow, and the gate thereof is strait. We 
must strive against sin, or perish forever. Destruc- 
tion's path, it tells us, is broad and thronged. Ac- 
cording to the preaching of Jesus, the great majority 
of mankind pass at death into everlasting woe ! A 
mere profession of religion, he says, does not save us. 
We may say Lord, Lord, and yet fail of being recog- 
nized by him as his disciples. To many, who, in 
time, have regarded themselves as his, he will at the 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 31 

judgment bar say, " Depart from me, ye that work 
iniquity." False teachers are spoken of, in our Lord's 
discourse, as a part of the devil's agency in the ruin 
of souls. Orthodoxy has ever held it to be difficult 
to reach the kingdom of glory. This system warns 
men, as does Christ, against the wide gate and broad 
way. It has recognized too, as did Jesus, the exist- 
ence and mischievousness of false prophets ; also, of 
evil spirits. 

Another point of similarity, between this sermon of 
Christ and the sentiments of the Orthodox, merits 
attention. He presents a standard for Christian aim 
as high as heaven. " Be ye therefore perfect, even as 
your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This is 
the moral law ; this is the language of all parts of 
the Old Testament. So Christ preached ; and is it 
not just so that Orthodoxy holds and teaches ? It 
recognizes no other standard. But Jesus knew that 
none of his disciples easily reach that standard. He 
has taught all of them to pray daily for pardon. A 
perfect person could not use the Lord's Prayer. 
Does not Orthodoxy hold, that, " if we say that we 
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is 
not in us ? " 

But, not to proceed with specifications like the pre- 
ceding, we will glance for a moment at the doctrine 
of the Trinity. Where, it is asked, in Christ's Ser- 
mon on the Mount is that taught ? We answer, that 
it is implied in the first petition of what is termed the 
Lord's prayer : " Hallowed be thy name." What- 
ever be the name by which God makes himself known 
to us, he thereby communicates something in regard 
to his nature. His titles grow out of his nature. If 



32 OUR HOLY HILL. 

there be any one of them which images forth his 
whole being, that one is preeminently his name. If 
in the nature of God there be a trinity of persons, 
that trinity is implied in his name. When we pray 
that God's name may be hallowed, we pray that God 
may be known and adored as an infinite Unity, if he 
exist in simple unity. If he exist in Trinity, we 
pray that Ms name, who exists in Trinity, may be 
everywhere known and adored. That God does ex- 
ist in Trinity, is a marked doctrine of the Scriptures; 
of course, we cannot repeat the Lord's prayer with- 
out asking that the name of the Triune God may be 
hallowed. 

Where is the atonement ? What part of the Ser 
mon of Christ contains it ? Here it is, " Thy king 
dom come." This is the Messianic kingdom, with al 
its provisions. There is no other kingdom of God 
for the coming of which we are to pray. This in 
eludes all the measures that the God of salvation has 
developed for the good of Adam's race. 

We cannot offer the Lord's prayer without asking 
of the Eternal that every doctrine of Orthodoxy shall 
prevail in the earth, and that every opposing system 
of religion or of irreligion shall be eradicated from 
the world. 

In closing his Sermon, Christ tells us that a hope 
of future happiness, not founded on his teachings in 
that discourse, will fail ; it shall become a total wreck. 
May it not thus be affirmed of every hope not resting 
on the essential points of Orthodoxy ? 



Christ's friends do ms will. 33 



CHRIST'S FRIENDS DO HIS WILL. 

It is unquestionably true, that Christ has a specific 
will or pleasure concerning every one who trusts in 
his grace. He does not simply love the church as 
a whole, but each member of it in particular. Zion 
is not only mapped out in the Saviour's mind as a 
great city ; every locality, resident, and incident, is 
engraved on his hands and heart. Does Christ style 
himself a shepherd, then he speaks of knowing his 
flock, and calling each member of it by name. No 
parent can be so intimately acquainted with the tal- 
ents, disposition, and necessities of his children, as 
Christ is with whatever pertains to the usefulness 
and happiness of those who believe in him. When 
he renews by his Spirit a soul, he has a definite pur- 
pose in respect to its sphere of action in time, not less 
than touching its endless welfare in eternity. As all 
the thoughts, plans, and acts of the believer are inti- 
mately connected with the glory of Christ, these all 
must be important items entering into the final ac- 
count of any one's stewardship. Go work in my 
vineyard, is the Lord's command to his servants indi- 
vidually. He, in superintending every department of 
labor, assigns to each a specific service. 

Every believer has the means of ascertaining 
Christ's will in reference to the course which him- 
self ought to pursue. We will not affirm that all 
questions in morals and religion, which the Christian 
must consider in deciding on his own path of duty, 



34 OUR HOLY HILL. 

can be answered with as much ease and certainty as 
an expert mathematician may solve a nowise diffi- 
cult problem in the science of numbers. The believer 
is to walk by faith. Yet he doubtless may — and the 
walking just named implies that he should — always 
proceed with the settled conviction of going as his 
divine Master directs. The will of Christ may be so 
satisfactorily ascertained, that the person who has 
been faithful in endeavors to know the pleasure of his 
Lord shall never subsequently fall under the condem- 
nation of his own conscience, nor have a rebuke from 
the Judge of all the earth. 

The Bible, Christ's law-book, contains not only 
great principles, but also a vast variety of illustrations. 
What Christian can be thrown into circumstances, 
amid which he may not find a precedent in this record 
book of his King, which shall in a good degree meet 
his own case ? The Scriptures were designed to be 
to him an adequate guide, and so they will prove 
when duly consulted. Christ's parables are wonder- 
fully fruitful in suggestions. He uttered them, with 
the moral wants of all his disciples to the end of time 
distinctly in view. He could have left ten or a hun- 
dred in the place of each one, had he deemed it need- 
ful. But the whole volume of inspiration must be 
searched. None of it is antiquated. 

Besides the Scriptures, the providences of God are 
perpetually casting light upon the Christian's course. 
Jehovah is by this means erecting guide-boards all 
along the pathway of his children, wherever it is in- 
tersected by w T ays which they ought not to enter, into 
which they are in danger of being led or driven. 

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is granted to every 



Christ's friends do his will. 35 

humble believer to enlighten his mind, and to influ- 
ence his affections. Christ sends no human messen- 
gers from the unseen world to warn or to encourage 
his disciples ; no spirits of departed saints or sinners 
come back from eternity to time, either to sport with 
mortal fancies or to impart grave counsel ; yet the 
Lord does grant gracious illumination and persua- 
sive aid to all who humbly ask that he would direct 
them. " He that seeketh findeth ; and to him that 
knocketh it shall be opened." 

It is universally a characteristic of the renewed 
heart to search for the Saviour's will. As the Tarsian 
Saul, when smitten to the earth by the convicting 
and renewing Spirit of God, instantly sought to 
know what Christ would have him to do, so does 
every person inquire, who is made a subject of the 
same renovating power. Regenerating grace trans- 
fers the sinner from the kingdom of Satan into the do- 
minion of Christ. To believe savingly is to enter as 
a loyal and joyful subject the realm controlled by the 
Redeemer. Intelligent, conscientious citizens, when 
removing their residence from one government to 
another, promptly acquaint themselves with the laws 
under which they propose to live. Whoever loves 
Christ, desires to please him in all respects. " Ye 
are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." 
Not the minutest degree of grace can exist in a soul 
without giving rise to a desire, more or less distinct 
and controlling, to perceive precisely what will meet 
the approbation of Jesus. 

Having ascertained the will of Christ, the believer 
unhesitatingly attempts its performance. Piety is 
prompt; it never cries, a little more sleep, a little 



36 OUR HOLY HILL. 

more slumber. The spirit is willing, though the flesh 
may be weak. Piety is not daunted by difficulties ; 
indeed, the way of holy obedience is endeared to the 
lovers of duty because of the obstacles to be sur- 
mounted. While human nature instinctively shrinks 
from suffering, a renewed nature claims it as a privi- 
lege to partake of trials for Christ's sake. A cross 
must be borne daily by every one who would consist- 
ently cherish the relation of discipleship to Jesus ; but 
that cross is not borne simply because it must be ; 
there is a love for the doing of something in honor of 
Christ. A faith that falters in view of toils in the 
vineyard, that shrinks from the idea of combat in 
the way to heaven, must be a counterfeit. 

The question, — what struggles must I encounter in 
obeying my Lord, — is not to be proposed, except to 
aid in the preparation for their endurance. It is simply 
to be asked, what does he command me to do ? If 
he bid me walk upon the water, I am not to raise a 
doubt as to the possibility of my being able to do it. 
The attempt must be made, and if it fail, the respon- 
sibility rests with Him whose word is my law. If I 
am directed to fly, I have nothing to do bat to com- 
ply with the injunction according to the best of my 
ability. To doubt the wisdom of the order is to con- 
stitute myself a judge of God's Son. 

Among the disciples of Christ is found a great vari- 
ety of physical and mental endowments. The oppor- 
tunities which believers have enjoyed for intellectual 
culture have been greatly diverse. In the lawful 
ordinary pursuits of the world is seen a diversity not 
less extensive. Every one may be usefully employed, 
and must be, or forfeit the title of disciple. Christ 



CHRIST'S FRIENDS DO HIS WILL. 37 

was most industriously active in all his public life ; 
and we may judge that he was equally so in pri- 
vate.life. 

What calling shall a Christian pursue ? 

That which his Saviour assigns him. None other- 
It cannot be a matter of indifference to Christ where- 
this or that believer dwells and toils. The question, 
" Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " embraces 
every thing pertaining to a disciple's duty. Probably 
there ought to be no distinction made in the mind of 
him offering such a petition, between what are termed 
secular and what are designated sacred services. If" 
one have lived impenitently till the noontide of his 
life, he must, on becoming penitsnt, inquire for the 
Redeemer's will, and be ready to change his previous 
course in every respect, or to move on in the same 
secular line, as he had done previously, according to 
what he learns of his Lord's will. 

Young persons, on becoming truly pious, are to 
place themselves in the market-place, and wait for 
the Owner of the vineyard to furnish them with 
work. Nor will they stand idle long, for he will soon 
give them employment. No one, whether in youth 
or in riper years, must himself alone decide where to 
go and what to do. Looking submissively to the 
Lord, he shall find signified with sufficient distinct- 
ness the divine pleasure concerning him. 

The believer, while faithfully performing his duty,, 
is to have no concern for his reputation ; it is com- 
mitted to the care of his Master. He must live all 
his life in the land of Midian — as Moses did forty 

4 



38 OUR HOLY HILL. 

years — if such be the will of the Lord. Nor should 
he reluctate, if divinely summoned from obscurity to 
sustain the most weighty responsibilities. David 
must on no account leave the sheep in the wilder- 
ness, unless called by a voice from the eternal throne 
to meet in mortal combat him defying the army of 
the living God ; and, having slain the giant Philistine, 
he must go back to fill again the office of a humble 
shepherd, unless the anointing oil designating him 
as Israel's king require him to be near the royal 
seat. 

Worldly ambition is not a fruit of the Spirit. 
Christ may bestow upon his friends earthly honor, 
but they are not authorized to seek it. If it be evi- 
dent to the mind of a Christian that he ought to de- 
vote his energies to a particular secular pursuit, then 
whatever he does should be done for the glory of 
God. It is not lawful for him to adopt theories and 
practices common among men, unless he can be sure 
that the divine sanction attend them. Beyond a 
doubt it is Christ's design that some of his followers 
shall be stewards amid great possessions. For rea- 
sons wise but unrevealed he may commit to such, 
vast treasures of perishable riches. But these are not 
to be sought. He positively forbids the making of 
their acquisition an object of effort. Industry and 
economy are virtues. Indolence and profligacy are 
vices, but the world is not to be loved. 

Suppose a Christian, in the prosecution of a lawful 
secular calling, has accumulated much property, and 
a crisis occurs in his affairs when he seems on the 
very point of losing all he has acquired. Perhaps the 
purpose of his Lord is that he shall be deprived of 



Christ's friends do his will. 39 

the whole. Certainly, on no account can a Chris- 
tian lawfully oppress the poor for the sake of pecun- 
iary advantage to himself. Wealthy disciples should 
be willing to sacrifice their all, before they diminish 
the scanty income of the poor. " Behold the hire of 
the laborers who have reaped down your fields, 
which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth, and the 
cries of them which have reaped are entered into the 
ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." 

To preach the Gospel to all the world is a charge 
given by Christ to his disciples. Young men must be 
inducted into the ministerial office. The instances 
are rare, in which a person is called from the avoca- 
tions of meridian life to enter upon the duties of a 
Gospel minister. It is not, however, to be presumed 
that a young man is elected by his Lord to so re- 
sponsible a calling, if not possessed of warm piety, 
good natural intellectual endowments, and other per- 
sonal qualifications adapted to render him in a meas- 
ure acceptable as a public speaker. Many, it is 
feared, have assumed to be under-shepherds, not hav- 
ing a commission from Him who is supreme in the 
church. Marts voice may have bidden them preach ; 
but called of Zion's King they were not. On the 
other hand it is intimated frequently, that num- 
bers who ought to be heralds of the cross are devoted 
to the professions of medicine, law, and the like. 

The case of young men of talent, who profess piety, 
may be viewed in the following light. They either 
are true Christians, or they are not. If they have 
believed savingly in the Son of God, they have ded- 
icated themselves unreservedly to Him. His will is 
their law. Wealth and honor they cannot seek as 



40 OUR HOLY HILL. 

their chief good. If they be intent upon the accumu- 
lation of property and the securing of terrestrial re- 
nown, then let them surrender their hopes of a future 
residence with Jesus. If their sails be spread to se- 
cure human applause, be it proclaimed in their hear- 
ing, that they are not wafting towards the celestial 
port. 

Young men, genuinely pious, are called into the 
ministry, or they are not so called. If not called by 
Christ, surely they are not blamable for being re- 
gardless of all human agencies in that direction. If, 
however, they are divinely called, and refuse obedi^ 
ence, then is their piety not a living flame ; not an 
impelling force. They need to fast, weep, and pray 
till the mountain of guilt lying upon them is removed, 
and grace, more abundant, has been communicated 
to their souls. We cannot believe that a young man 
who shrinks from the difficulties inherent in the Gos- 
pel ministry, or incidental to it, is qualified to be one 
of Christ's preachers. He may say with Paul : 
" And who is sufficient for these things ? " Yet if he 
obey the call of his Lord to be a herald of salvation, 
he may use the words of the same apostle : " And I 
thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me, 
for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the 
ministry." What has a young man to do with the 
difficulties of the ministerial office, before he finds 
them actually pressing upon him ? The proverb, " A 
prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself," is 
not applicable in this case. The waters of the Red 
Sea did not divide till Israel was so near as to feel 
that deliverance could come in no other way. And 
the priest's feet even came in contact with the liquid 



CHRIST'S FRIENDS DO HIS WILL. 41 

element, ere it parted to give God's people a passage 
through the Jordan. Verily, that is a timid piety 
which will not go forward, except as it can walk by 
sight and see no difficulties before it. Christ's ser- 
vice requires moral heroism ; and he that cannot or 
will not be a hero in such a cause is unworthy to 
stand anywhere in Zion, as an officer of the King. 

But this matter of young men and the ministry as- 
sumes a specific form, thus : They are deterred from 
this sacred office because many parishes do not fur- 
nish an adequate support to the incumbents of their 
pulpits. And what has the youthful believer to do 
with the penuriousness of parishes, when his only 
prayer with reference to the choice of a profession 
should be, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " Do 
not thousands of young men, who have named Christ 
before the world, take up the practice of medicine or 
law without a pledge from any mortal, and certainly 
having none from God that their professional income 
shall be sufficient to procure a pillow by night or a 
crust of bread by day ? There are no apologies to be 
offered for the avarice of ecclesiastical societies, or for 
church-members who lay up gold and silver by thou- 
sands annually, and avariciously withhold at the 
same time, from the faithful servants of the Lord, an 
adequate support. Still there are no apologies to be 
offered for a young man who regards himself as a 
follower of Christ, yet dares not consecrate himself 
to the ministry, through fear that he shall not be fed 
and clothed if he preach the Gospel to please his 
Saviour. In the name of our holy religion we beg 
that such a reason as is stated above may no more de- 
ter any pious young man from the ranks of Gospel 

4* 



42 OUR HOLY HILL. 

preachers ; but God forbid that the pulpits of our land 
should be filled by those who lack indomitable zeal for 
the truth. 

If there be not within the compass of the church a 
supply of young men who are ready to meet any exi- 
gency to which their Master calls them, then indeed 
has the time come when the church should put on 
sackcloth and sit in the dust, bewailing her own de- 
pressed spirituality. Doubtless she needs to have 
opened over her anew the windows of heaven. Je- 
hovah must pour down the great rain of his righteous- 
ness ere her watchtowers can be suitably supplied 
with watchmen, and her heralds go forth into all the 
-world, preaching the Gospel to every creature. Be- 
take thyself, O Zion, to the mercy-seat. Pray the 
harvest's Lord to raise up and send forth laborers into 
all the world. 



Shall I be a Missionary ? 

Such a question is almost forced upon the atten- 
tion of every young, educated, pious man. Nor is the 
number of the other sex small to whom, if their 
hearts glow with love to the Saviour, the same ques- 
tion becomes a personal matter. All must go in 
the name of Jesus to the heathen whom he commis- 
sions. Some who would joyfully go were they sent 
are sure of being interdicted from going, because they 
are not qualified for such a work. Christ's will 
should guide the believer's in regard to the missionary 
service just as in respect to the work at home. They, 
verily, are peculiarly honored who are sent by their 
king on the most difficult embassies. Talent of a 



THE GOOD MAN LOVES THE BIBLE. 43 

rare excellence is requisite in a pioneer missionary ; 
and some special traits may be needful, at nearly 
every post of spiritual combat, in unevangelized coun- 
tries. But let the young convert ask with all his 
heart for his Master's will, and he shall know whether 
or not he is fit to go to the heathen. He will not 
be obliged to come back on account of unfitness for 
the field. 



THE GOOD MAN LOVES THE BIBLE. 

God has given us in his own Book many tests by 
which we can form a safe opinion of moral character, 
and we shall not err if we carefully heed them. It is 
common for earthly judges to designate any person 
of fair exterior as good. If there be no dark stain 
upon one, and nothing essentially at variance with 
what is reputable in society, he is deemed good 
enough for earth ; and also prepared for heaven. To 
suggest, in regard to such, as did the Saviour in a cer- 
tain case, that something is lacking, is to arouse the 
indignation of those who have rendered their lauda- 
tory verdict. 

If we mistake not, the Scriptures most unequivo- 
cally assert that a good man delights in God's special 
revelation; they represent him as characterized by 
such a trait. 

But, were the inspired volume silent in its testi- 
mony on this point, we might reason from the nature 



44 OUR HOLY HILL. 

of the case that it must be so in regard to any per- 
son whom God would pronounce good. 

God is the author of the Holy Scriptures, and a 
good man cannot fail to esteem most highly what- 
ever bears the stamp of his producing power. It is 
certain beyond all doubt that the Bible is from the 
source here named. It could have had no other par- 
entage. He that does not know these statements to 
be correct must be lamentably ignorant of the con- 
tents of the Bible, or he entertains the most extrava- 
gant opinion of the ability of some persons in former 
generations. We see no individuals who could 
begin to produce a book like the Bible, if not in- 
spired ; nor have we ever heard of any ; nor can we 
conceive that such ever had an existence. 

The Scriptures are from God — such is the fact. 
On it we may rest without the least misgiving. 
"Whoever looks upon this volume has every reason to 
feel that Jehovah is its Author. 

But the contents of the Bible render it irresistibly 
attractive to the good man. Genuine history, in its 
highest antiquity, is found here. The information 
conveyed in the first chapter is indispensable for us, 
if we would have any just conceptions of the origin 
of all things. What have pagans ever known re- 
specting the creation of man, or the beginning of the 
world ? Consult the records of nations to whom the 
Scriptures are unknown, and what will you find 
touching these points ? Fables and wild fancies. 
Go, ye who glory in reason as all-sufficient to guide 
man in time, and also when he shall leave this for 
another state of being, — go, consult the products of 
reason where the Bible has not influenced it. 



THE GOOD MAN LOVES THE BIBLE. 45 

Those sketches of human nature furnished by God's 
pen are just what every man needs. Noah's faith is 
not more distinctly stated than is his foible touching 
wine. To show us the effect of sin as in the case of 
Cain is to furnish us with a beacon visible far and 
near. Truth in its strictness evidently characterizes 
the pen-portraitures of men and manners recorded 
in the Bible. Inspiration daguerreotypes characters. 
Abraham's imperfection is as plainly set forth as his 
perfection. The mistakes of Moses are rendered as 
obvious as his paramount excellences. David's ar- 
raignment by God for sins almost unpardonable, and 
the scourgings inflicted upon this transgressor, are 
laid open to the gaze of the whole world. Vile 
men cast aspersions upon the book of God, as if it 
were of bad tendency in rehearsing such misdeeds as 
it records. Some would even exclude it from their 
houses on this account ! O ye hypocritical zealots 
for social purity ! are not the deepest stains of immo- 
rality upon your own persons ? Take heed; the Bible 
tells us that temporal judgments fell upon sinning 
saints as foretokens of a retribution sure and eternal 
for all who sin, but do not sorrow after a godly sort. 
The morality required by God, as the Bible informs 
us, is so pure that an unchaste thought, if not par- 
doned, will forever shut him who indulges it out of 
heaven. 

As adapted to the human intellect, the Bible se- 
cures the love and the homage of every educated, 
good man. Our holy religion elevates the mind. 
The Being whom the Scriptures teach us to worship 
is high, is infinite. We cannot think of him without 
experiencing increased power of thought. How terse 



46 OUR HOLY HILL. 

the style of the Sacred Volume! Just what the 
mind requires. How inspiring its poetry ! How sub- 
lime, too, is much of its prose ! Mere human produc- 
tions are tameness itself in comparison ! 

The Bible is a guide to heaven. God has given 
none other. The neglecter of this book must remain 
under the Divine wrath ; must be a slave of sin for- 
ever. It is here, and nowhere else, that we learn the 
method of deliverance which God foreordained. 
Scarcely have our eyes traced the sentence recorded 
against our sinning ancestors, ere we behold the 
promise of a deliverer. We find many pages of the 
Old Testament glowing with descriptions of One to 
come as almighty to save. In that part of the holy 
volume is prefigured his predicted advent, and the effi- 
cacy of his atonement is symbolized by the shedding 
of much blood. In the New Testament, Bethlehem's 
star points us to the promised seed. We are intro- 
duced to the miracle-working Jesus on many an in- 
structive occasion. His power to forgive sins is ex- 
ercised in our sight. With Jesus we go to Calvary, 
and become spectators of his crucifixion. Upon our 
ears falls the announcement, " It is finished." With 
the earliest we are at the sepulchre on the morning of 
Christ's resurrection. Of our risen Lord we obtain 
glimpses during the forty days which intervened be- 
tween his leaving the tomb and his ascent to heaven. 
Through the instruction of this volume we behold the 
Saviour interceding for us at the right hand of God. 
If penitence for all sin be ours, then are we sure that 
pardoning mercy is freely granted us. Are we for- 
given, then do we know that our names are in the 
Lamb's book of life. 



THE GOOD MAN LOVES THE BIBLE. 47 

Such is a mere glance at the volume, in which it is 
most evident that every man meriting the epithet 
good, delights — well may he delight in it. Jehovah 
gave it to him as a priceless bestowment. It has 
been observed by some one, that " All who are 
pleased that there is a God must be well pleased 
that there is a Bible, a revelation of God, of his will, 
and the only way to happiness in him." 

Having glanced at the contents of our divine Book, 
and having seen in it such treasures of truth, such a 
revelation of mercy for sinning man, as must afford 
great delight to any one in whom the love of God is 
shed abroad, we conclude that a good man will avail 
himself of all opportunities to fill his mind and ani- 
mate his heart with these precious truths. Besides, 
inspiration represents the good man as meditating 
day and night in the law of the Lord. 

Such a person desires to be thoroughly versed in 
every portion of the Scriptures ; hence he devotes as 
much time as possible to acquainting himself with 
them. He would leave no part of this rich field un- 
explored by his own person. It does not satisfy him 
to hear of beauty, grandeur, sublimity, richness in 
mines of precious ores, of soils fertile, of waving har- 
vest fields : he wishes to see all with his own eyes ; to 
become, to the greatest extent possible, personally 
familiar with the whole. The good man knows that 
God holds him responsible for the use he makes of 
the Bible. It will not suffice to learn its value by 
simply listening to what public expounders say of it. 
For what, he asks, were mine eyes given me, if not to 
see the very words which the Lord's Spirit has in- 
dited ? To be thoroughly versed in the knowledge of 



48 OUR HOLY HILL. 

any subject, we must so identify ourselves with it, as 
to know all its general and all its particular divisions. 
The Bible can never be understood by a mere hasty 
attention to it. Its shortest sentences expand with 
meaning almost indefinitely as we meditate upon 
them. What at first sight may seem to be pleonastic 
words are found, on a close scrutiny, to be connecting 
links in the most important sentiments, or in some 
other way essential in expressing the mind of the 
spirit. Page after page, which infidels, always super- 
ficial in the knowledge of Scripture, attempt to turn 
into ridicule, glows with celestial brightness in the 
vision of him whose eyes the Lord has opened. 

"While the good man has no ambition to become a 
champion in defending the assailed character of God, 
he does wish to imitate Jesus in repelling temptation 
by meeting it with weapons from the divine armory. 
Irreligion always finds itself facing antagonists un- 
conquerable, when it assails Christians who are famil- 
iar with the Bible. Some of the best contenders for 
the faith once delivered to the saints are among the 
laity in Zion. 

Every man, to whom the Scriptures would apply 
the epithet good, desires to regulate himself by the 
divine standard. It can be no part of his daily aim 
to use weights and measures which the laws of immu- 
table justice condemn. It is with him a practical 
motto as well as a divine declaration, that to walk 
surely one must walk uprightly. A frequent mistake 
with mankind is to suppose that their own opinions 
affect, in the abstract, moral principles ; that God 
estimates men as they do themselves ; that he will 
certainly render them eternally happy, provided they 



THE GOOD MAN LOVES THE BIBLE. 49 

think he will. The origin of this delusion is a de- 
praved heart, which has disordered reason, stifled to a 
great extent the voice of conscience, and dethroned 
even common sense. God is not controlled by any 
creature in his decisions relative to moral character. 

The good man's religion is drawn directly from the 
fountain, hence it is as pure in its nature as the river 
of life. Daily he resorts thither; goes for himself.. 
What he drinks, gushes directly up out of God's well. 
It cannot be entirely safe, at least in these days, to 
receive the water of life through any merely human 
channel. Impurity, yea poison, may be conveyed 
with it. To the fountain, to the fountain let all 
who thirst resort ! 

A good man, we still refer to one whom God un- 
questionably recognizes as such, has constant regard 
to the day when he must give account to the Author 
of the Scriptures for the use he has made of them.. 
Not with a slavish fear does he pore over them on 
that account, for he regards Jehovah as his friend. 
Love to that infinite Being influences him to learn 
what the Bible teaches on all points of duty, and es- 
pecially does he desire that he may meet with accept- 
ance at the tribunal of eternity. It can be nought but 
hardness of heart, that excludes from one's thoughts 
the absolute certainty and relative nearness of future 
retribution. Of an age when human life lasted much 
longer than at present, it is recorded that saints con- 
fessed themselves " strangers and pilgrims on the 
earth." Now, when with emphasis the providence of 
God, as well as his Word, says, that life " is even a 
vapor that appeareth for a little time and then van- 
isheth away," the good man will desire daily to look 



50 OUR HOLY HILL. 

into the law-book of the Lord, that he may at any 
moment be prepared to meet his Judge. 

We may regard earth as a primary school for be- 
lievers in Jesus. On being transferred to heaven, 
they will enter a higher sphere of instruction, provided 
they have improved the opportunities afforded them 
in time. But is it improbable that the untaught who 
die penitent will be required to learn in heaven the 
first principles of revealed religion ? Is there a foun- 
dation for the suggestion often made, that an infant 
immediately at death knows more of divine things 
than any living person ? May we not rather conclude, 
that mental development in heaven is gradual ? Must 
it not be so, from the very nature of mind ? Is it not 
certain, that the degrees of happiness enjoyed there 
will depend much upon the improvement of privileges 
here? Far be all thought from us of aspiring for 
preeminence in the world of glory. Equally far, 
however,, from every mind should be the idea that 
Bible knowledge in time has no connection with 
blessedness in eternity. 

The good man's love for the Scriptures inspires 
him with gratitude for every influence, stimulating 
him to greater diligence in the study of them. Per- 
fection in pious attainment, in no respect as yet, 
characterizes Christ's followers. How often is the 
Spirit willing when the flesh is weak. What urgings 
are needed at times to persuade ourselves to the per- 
formance of religious duties the most obvious. 

Infidel attacks are permitted, in part, doubtless, that 
the friends of the Scriptures may more zealously con- 
sult their Oracle. Hitherto all efforts for subverting 
the authority of God's Book have caused it to be 



THE PIOUS LOVE GOD'S HOUSE. 51 

more firmly rooted in the confidence of Christians. 
The more it has been assailed, the more good people 
have examined it, and loved it, and labored for its 
universal circulation. 



THE PIOUS LOVE GOD'S HOUSE. 

By God's house we mean an edifice appropriated 
to his worship ; one that has been erected and set 
apart as holy unto him. When we affirm that the 
pious love it, we do not intend to intimate that many 
of the unrenewed may not take great pleasure in it. 
Morality and civilization are so intimately connected 
with the temples of the Lord, that no person, desirous 
of dwelling in reputable society, can be indifferent 
respecting them. Public worship on the Sabbath, 
when rightly conducted, is a great educator of a com- 
munity. 

We may assign this, then, as one among the rea- 
sons why the pious love God's house, that all the 
dearest civil rights of individuals are connected with 
it. Saurin affirms it to have been said, " Kingdoms 
and States cannot be elevated without violating the 
laws of equity, and infringing the rights of the 
church." Such a sentiment might perhaps be natu- 
rally cherished where a false religion sways the State. 
But it is now, and ever has been true, that " righteous- 
ness exalteth a nation." This conclusion, then, cannot 
be resisted, that " if all things be weighed, it will be 



52 OUR HOLY HILL. 

found that the more society practises virtue, the more 
prosperity it will enjoy ; " and " the more it abandons 
itself to vice, the more misery will it sooner or later 
suffer." Those nations which anciently arose to great 
power were from their origin onward, till they had 
reached their highest elevation, most rigid in the 
practice of social virtues. It is true of them, that they 
were all " by turns exalted as they respected right- 
eousness, or abased as they neglected it." We are 
told, that in ancient Egypt benevolence was so ex- 
tensively practised that he who refused to relieve the 
wretched when he might do it, " was himself punished 
with death ; " so impartial was justice, that the kings 
obliged the judges never to do any thing against their 
own consciences, even if commanded by the kings 
themselves to act contrary to it ; that to bad princes 
were denied the honors of a funeral ; that the vanity 
of life was so correctly estimated, that their dwellings 
were regarded as only temporary lodging-places, and 
" their sepulchres as habitations, in which they were 
to abide many ages." Among the Persians falsehood 
was considered " as a vice, the meanest and most dis- 
graceful." — " Queens and all court ladies quitted the 
table as soon as ever the company began to lay aside 
moderation in drinking." Children " were taught 
virtue as other children are taught letters." No grief 
was exhibited " for such youth as died uneducated." 
Similar statements might be made in regard to other 
great nations of antiquity, and many more like these 
now quoted might be enumerated, in respect to the 
kingdoms already named, and which rose by means 
of virtue. But, having reached the summit of their 
opulence and power, they sooner or later loosened the 



53 



bands of virtue. There were no temples of Jehovah 
within their cities and villages to save them. -Pure re- 
ligion was not there to hold them up, and they all 
eventually fell into ruins. So will the nations now 
extant pass away, if they be not preserved, by an exem- 
plification in the lives of their citizens, of the doctrines 
which the Bible contains. The worship of the true 
God is essential to the perpetuation of civil liberty. 
But such worship can be maintained only by setting 
apart edifices for it, and by consecrating in practice 
the day which God has declared holy. The decree 
has gone forth from the Eternal — it is immutable — 
that the nations which will not serve him shall be ut- 
terly wasted. Piety is patriotic. Who anciently 
loved their country more than did the devout Jews ? 
Who are so thankful for this nation's existence and 
welfare as are the truest followers of Jesus ? For 
whose sake does God spare the people of this land, 
when he might justly banish them into the gulf which 
has swallowed up former kingdoms and empires ? 
Not for yours, ye despisers of his temples, ye con- 
temners of his worship ! 

But the pious have a higher reason for loving 
God's house ; it is holy. Jerusalem was designated 
a holy city. In these times, no cities can be so called. 
The temples of the Lord are, however, appropriately 
thus named. To him they are dedicated, and he 
accepts the offering. No sooner had Moses com- 
pleted the Tabernacle, than God took possession of it 
as his dwelling-place among the people. His glory 
at once filled it. When the first temple was dedi- 
cated it was immediately filled with a cloud indicat- 
ing the divine presence, " so that the priests could 
5* 



54 OUR HOLY HILL. 

not stand to minister by reason of the cloud ; for the 
glory of the Lord had filled the house of God." It 
accords not with the simplicity of the present dispen- 
sation for the Almighty to manifest himself in open 
majesty, when edifices are set apart for his service ; 
but he enters them invisibly, and never forsakes them 
while they are held sacred to his honor. " But will 
God indeed dwell on the earth ? Behold, the heaven 
and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how 
much less this house that I have builded." Such ex- 
pressions Solomon uttered. They show enlarged 
views of the Holy One, and a humble estimate of 
his own work. No enlightened Christian expects to 
confer a favor upon God by aiding in the rearing of a 
sanctuary. He may, however, expect that God will 
honor him with convincing tokens of love, within the 
reared and consecrated house. 

Pious persons love the house of the Lord because 
•of the heavenly nature of its exercises. Worship is 
the great end ; worship so conducted as to instruct 
and spiritualize. A serious mind cannot but be im- 
pressed favorably and deeply with it. No profane 
lips are allowed to speak, unless they employ sacred 
words in concert with those who offer praise. The 
vile know that if they enter God's house, they must 
exhibit at least the outward demeanor of saints. In 
what other place is a person secure from rudeness 
of speech, from being even boisterously cursed? 
God's day shields no Christian from the annoyances 
of the wicked. Indeed, ungodly persons often take 
special pains to show themselves odious during holy 
hours. We have known the disciples of Jesus to be 
so situated that they dreaded the arrival of the Sab- 



THE PIOUS LOYE GOD'S HOUSE. 55 

bath, and rejoiced, when its hours were all departed, 
because of the increased disturbances occurring on 
that day. If in sacred hours a community be not 
engaged in the duties pertaining to private and pub- 
lic worship, it will be marshalled by the prince of in- 
iquity. God's people may be, and often are, insulted 
on their way to the place of their devotions; but 
when within the holy temple, quiet may be enjoyed. 
As a general statement, — the laws of the State will 
protect them there. Blessed be the Lord for such re- 
treats! Let hallelujahs be offered to him for allow- 
ing his people such emblems of heaven — his own 
eternal home. 

Another reason why pious persons love God's 
house is that by means of its services sinners are 
converted. Destroy holy edifices, and what is there 
left of sacred institutions ? Worship might be here 
and there continued for a while, but not permanently. 
The holy Dove would eventually cease his visits to 
earth, and spiritual death settle upon all the mountains 
and in all the valleys of this rolling sphere. Were 
the Omnipotent now to place a perpetual interdict 
upon the custom of building sanctuaries for him, we 
might conclude that the number of his elect is al- 
ready complete, and that henceforth only reprobates 
are to live and die amid terrestrial scenes. 

Our theme may be easily illustrated by an appeal 
to Scripture — especially to the Psalms. This part 
of the divine volume exhibits more fully than any 
other the different phases of religious experience, both 
in respect to trial and enjoyment. Here the believer 
is portrayed in his daily life — here we see him trod- 
den down by foes too mighty for him, yet subse- 



56 OUR HOLT HILL. 

quently lifted up, through the interposition of Omnip- 
otent goodness and power. 

Probably the eighty-fourth Psalm expresses as 
strikingly the feelings of the pious toward God's 
house as language can do it. As such an exponent, 
the Psalm merits frequent perusal. It may have been 
composed, as some one suggests, by an individual 
living at a distance from the place of worship, yet 
who went regularly there to pay his devotions. 
" How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts." 
Such may be his meditation while he is yet in his 
own habitation. Whatever are the beauties of his 
private residence, those of God's house are far more 
alluring. " My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for 
the courts of the Lord ; my heart and my flesh crieth 
out for the living God." The day of assembling to 
honor Jehovah has come, and his desire to appear 
with the worshippers is irrepressibly strong. Though 
perhaps worn down with perplexing cares and bur- 
dens, his soul and body are both eager to be in the 
place where God's honor abides. " Blessed are they 
that dwell in thy house." Near the closing part of 
the Psalm, the writer's love for the holy place is thus 
expressed : " For a day in thy courts is better than a 
thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper in the house 
of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." 
A marginal reading here is, " I would choose rather 
to sit at the threshold." The writer probably means 
to say that he would prefer to be only so near, if he 
could be no nearer the exercises of God's house, to a 
participation in all the pleasures of the most luxuri- 
ous entertainments of the wicked. Of this whole 
Psalm it has been observed, that the language " is 



57 



inexpressibly tender and energetic, and evinces a 
degree of spirituality it were happiness of the highest 
order to possess. How much do they err who imag- 
ine that the Old Testament worshippers were stran- 
gers to the loftiest operations of spiritual devotion." 

We have spoken of this Psalm as exhibiting the 
feelings of an individual. But we are not thus to 
limit its design. Inspiration prepared it to embody 
in a degree, at least, the feelings of the intelligent 
pious of every age and nation in respect to the public 
worship of Jehovah. The costume is that of the age 
in which David and Asaph wrote and sung; but the 
sentiments and emotions are doubtless characteristic 
of all spiritually enlightened and duly taught in regard 
to truth and righteousness. Essentially the same 
views and feelings are developed in other Psalms. 
" One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I 
seek after ; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord 
all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the 
Lord, and to inquire in his temple." 

"What the Bible exhibits on this subject has been 
illustrated in the universal history of the church. Em- 
inent saints have always been zealous in attending 
public worship. Revivals of religion send people to 
God's temples, or wherever the heralds of salvation 
proclaim divine truth. In times of persecution, 
when edicts of enthroned wickedness have shut up 
the Lord's sanctuaries, scattered saints have congre- 
gated in the caves of the earth, or in mountain fast- 
nesses, to unite in worship, for they could not willingly 
forsake the assembling of themselves together to pray 
unto their King, and to sing his praise. 

If at any period in Zion's history the zeal of nomi- 



58 OUR HOLY HILL. 

rial saints for the house of God has been languid, then 
has pure religion been in a sad decline. No other 
proof of spiritual desolation need be cited. What did 
the Dark Ages exhibit? Was not the very idea of 
spiritual worship nearly annihilated ? What has Ca- 
tholicism that merits the name of worship — the wor- 
ship of the true God ? What have any of the mere 
nominal Christian sects of this nature ? "The Greek 
Church is a dead body of stereotype forms and usages, 
and these as devoid of beauty as they are of life." 

" Can God be flattered with thy cringing bows, 
Thy solemn chatt'rings and fantastic vows ? 
Are his eyes charmed thy vestments to behold, 
Glaring in gems and gay in woven gold ? " 

It may be regarded as one of the sad omens of our 
times, that so many, whose names are on church rec- 
ords, show unequivocal signs of not loving God's 
house. If they have any pure piety at heart, it seems 
to exert no salutary influence in the community. 
While it must be admitted, that regularity in the ex- 
ternals of religion may consist with a lack of grace in 
the heart ; it is not to be questioned that the renewing 
Spirit implants in the soul great love for the Lord's 
tabernacles. Nor can any true Christian fail of being 
zealous to appear in the house of God more than 
once on the Sabbath day. 

Let those who multiply excuses for neglecting the 
place where God's honor dwells remember that he 
has a record book. The judgment-day may reveal 
their sophistical pleas, and themselves be classed with 
the left hand division, when the angels shall " sever 
the wicked from among the just." He that delighteth 



THE SACRIFICES OF GOD. 59 

not in heaven's truest type, cannot very fitly be 
thought on the way to the place typified. A disrelish 
in time for holy service, must evince an unfitness for 
it in eternity. 

" God is the judge of hearts ; no fair disguises 
Can screen the guilty, when his vengeance rises." 



THE SACRIFICES OF GOD. 

By what omnipotence of grace must a sinner be 
fitted, if at all, to dwell with the king eternal ? The 
law in the members wars against God's merciful im- 
planting of grace in the heart. It seems to be a 
universal fact, that the old man is not easily displaced 
by the new. Ah, who could be saved, were there no 
divine purpose securing the ultimate arrival at heaven 
of the regenerate ? 

What strange fallings back in religion have charac- 
terized some of the pious preeminents. When we 
see Elijah stand on Carmel, in the presence of the 
altar on which glows heaven-sent fire, we feel that 
he is so ripe for the society of Paradise, that human 
imperfection will not again appear conspicuous in 
him. But how long a time is it ere, smitten with 
unmanly fear, he flies like a fugitive through the 
length of the promised land ; darts a day's journey 
beyond its fertile border into a solitary wilderness, 
and then " under a juniper tree " gives himself up to 
unheroic wishings for death? The errors of great 
men are prominent like mountainous heights. 



60 OUR HOLY HILL. 

David, Israel's great singer, comes before us first in 
the ruddiness of youthful beauty, and apparently 
with the intrepidity of sincere and established piety. 
When he stands in the presence of his nation's army, 
and hears the taunts of the boasting Goliath, he seems 
so fit for the bosom of God, that we almost wonder 
some angel does not lift him thither at once. But 
grace was then only partially victorious in his soul. 
Jehovah's seal of pardon was upon him. An eternal 
purpose of mercy had begun to be effective in his be- 
half ; but the youth had not wholly conquered himself. 
His subsequent history was to evince, in some par- 
ticulars, that a giant Philistine may be more easily 
slain in battle than unholy passions are eradicated 
from the soul. 

Dark spots there are on the brightest terrestrial 
illuminators. Alas, how dark are some of them ! He 
whose name we have just recorded reigned with con- 
summate skill over the twelve tribes ; the Lord's elect 
nation. From generation to generation the promised 
territory had not been wholly possessed till this man, 
whom God chose to anoint as king, subdued it, and 
wielded a sceptre over it. Yet, from the highest ele- 
vation of earthly power and influence, this mighty 
monarch, this inspired poet, this prophet of the Lord, 
was smitten down to a level with the vile ones of the 
land. Beauty captivated him ; and passion, his own 
unholy passion, drove him into an abyss of crime, and, 
as it would seem, bereft him almost, if not wholly, 
for a while, of moral sensibility.. 

When, however, God permits his elect to fall from 
lofty heights of influence, it is for the illustrating of 
great principles in his moral administration. That 



THE SACRIFICES OF GOD. 61 

arm of infinite power which raised David so high, and 
sustained him for a time, was neither weakened nor 
wearied. The kingdom of grace wisely imparts in- 
struction like what the fifty-first Psalm contains. 
We assert not absolutely, that David penned it. 
Nor on the supposition that its melting numbers 
flowed from his heart, do we affirm for a certainty 
that the visit of the prophet Nathan to him occasioned 
its preparation. Yet the common conviction is that 
this Psalm was composed by him soon after his ar- 
raignment by the Lord's messenger, and a sentence 
of death had been undesignedly passed by himself on 
himself. So the title indicates, and what valid reason 
can be suggested against the idea ? Strike out from 
God's book the leaf on which this Psalm is printed ; 
permit its agonizing pleas and \ital announcements 
to be read and heard no more, and what a blank is 
made in that volume ! The fifty-first Psalm is an 
essential aid, we imagine, to the convicted and con- 
trite. It affixes great value to the bruised spirit ; it 
shows how broken hearts are regarded by God. 

The sacrifices of God. How suggestive is this brief 
sentence. Mysterious from first to last, in respect to 
its sacrifices, was that long series of years during 
which Jehovah demanded the shedding of animal 
blood. Why must living victims be brought to the 
altar and there slain ? Why should blood be shed in 
sacrifice by Abel and onward, till the Paschal lamb 
had been eaten on the night previous to the crucifix- 
ion of Christ ? Blood, blood, God required to be shed, 
from the era of the fall of the first Adam unto the 
time when the second Adam agonized in Gethsemane 
and expired on Calvary. Who can enumerate the 

6 



62 OUR HOLT HILL. 

victims that were laid upon God's altars by his di- 
rection ? 

But, during all the thousands of years in which 
bloody rites were enjoined by the Most High, there 
was a sacrifice without blood that might be desig- 
nated, by way of preeminence, God's. The Psalmist, 
crushed to the earth by the weight of his sins, an- 
guished almost to death with a sense of his guilt, 
longs to appease the righteous wrath of Heaven. 
What shall he do ? Any number of lambs and calves 
he would lay upon the altar of the Lord. These, 
however, would avail naught, though they might be 
multiplied till the sun should be darkened by day 
with the smoke of their burning, and the darkness of 
night be dispelled by the brightness of their fires. 
From the depths of his prostration he looks toward 
bis incensed Lord, and exclaims, " Thou desirest not 
sacrifice, else would I give it ; thou delightest not in 
burnt-offering." He is convinced that his iniquities 
cannot be atoned by adding new victims to the daily 
number. He finds himself so imprisoned by his own 
transgression, that no priest can bid him go free. 
Must he die in 'his dungeon? Must he sink forever? 
Shall those lips which have often sung with rapture 
the praises of Jehovah in Zion, be surrendered to 
everlasting cursings ? Must the king of Israel be given 
over to endless tormentors ? No ! There is a sacri- 
fice which the Almighty can accept from him. " A 
broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not 
despise." Such a sacrifice the royal offender presents, 
and is brought again into communion with infinite 
Holiness. 

The sacrifices of God from Adam to the death of 



THE SACRIFICES OF GOD. 63 

Christ, were preeminently broken spirits ; broken 
and contrite hearts. Never was Jehovah's altar ap- 
proached by patriarch, priest, prophet, king, or sub- 
ject with acceptance, save as the broken spirit and 
the contrite heart accompanied the literal sacrifices. 
Heart worship has ever been required by God. Abel 
met with favor because of his broken spirit and con- 
trite heart. The ritual service of the first dispensation 
could not be performed to God's approval without 
soul-prostration before him. When, in the time of 
Isaiah, the worshippers at the temple very generally 
disregarded this fact, God by a peremptory order ex- 
pelled the heartless formalists from it. He declared 
that he abhorred their burnt- offerings and their in- 
cense ; and esteemed their solemn meetings as ini- 
quity. 

Year has been added to year, and century to cen- 
tury, since the ordinary Jewish priests served by turns 
at sacrificial altars, and since the gorgeously attired 
high-priest was wont, at stated seasons, to make 
atonement for the people — himself included among 
them. In the full tide of its majesty and sanctity the 
old dispensation moved on, till the earth shook amid 
the scenes of crucifixion. Then was the temple's vail 
rent ; then, as by a voice of thunder, did the economy 
of blood receive a command from its author to rest 
forever ! 

Sacrifices manifold are now required. Christ's 
kingdom is one of instrumentalities. Human hands 
and earthly goods are called into its service. Believ- 
ers must make living offerings of themselves to their 
holy King. Life itself is not to stand for a moment 



64 OUR HOLY HILL. 

in competition with any duty made binding by the 
injunction of Immanuel. 

But the sacrifices of God which he specially re- 
quires are now the same as they were when the peni- 
tent Psalmist declared them to be " a broken spirit, a 
broken and a contrite heart." To one inquiring for 
the means of bringing an acceptable gift to Jehovah's 
altar, the response is suggested by the words just 
quoted. Let all the lambs feed in the green pastures 
of summer, and be inclosed in the safe, warm folds of 
winter. Omniscience claims none of them for his 
altars. The sun has ceased to shine on crimson rites, 
ordained of the Lord ; the moon no more dips her 
white beams in blood required by him for sacrifice. 
Hyssop branches are laid aside. God the Spirit is 
now the applier of Christ's atoning blood, and with 
the strongest emphasis it should be proclaimed, that 
the sacrifices of God are " a broken spirit, a broken 
and a contrite heart." This is what his word de- 
mands ; what his altar welcomes ; what his heart 
loves. 

The expression, sacrifices of God, may be consid- 
ered antithetically suggestive. Human eyes can see 
only the exterior person ; God's vision pierces the 
soul. Man requires of his fellow at most only cor- 
rectness of outward deportment ; God demands the 
homage of the soul. Man proclaims with great as- 
surance the ascent to heaven of such as are fair in 
the view of mortal inspection. He detects not the 
counterfeit polish. God is not deceived by a hypo- 
critical exterior. No spurious coin in the religious 
market escapes the scrutiny of his detecter. 



THE SACRIFICES OF GOD. ,65 

What saintly epitaphs are sometimes inscribed 
upon the tombstones of sinners notorious ! But the 
judgment trump will not call the wicked dead to the 
right hand of the Messiah, because a chisel may have 
cut good words relative to them on slate or marble. 
If graveyard inscriptions were prepared by the Om- 
niscient, their import would always be truthfuL But 
he neither writes epitaphs himself, nor inspires men 
to compose them. 

Many a public character whose sentiments were 
known to be openly infidel, has passed directly at 
death into the third heaven to be clothed in garments 
of salvation, provided the applauding breath of mor- 
tals were adequate to waft one to that distant, high, 
and holy realm. God's sacrifices, however, are not 
statesmanship, not generalship, xiot literary celebrity. 
They are " a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite 
heart." There have been men famed justly as found- 
ers of empires, as leaders of armies, as historians, as 
philosophers, as rhetoricians, as poets, where even the 
existence of the true God was not known. Men can 
be great according to various human standards, with- 
out a penitent heart ; but God cannot delight in them. 
His standard of greatness was not taken from earth. 
Nor does he accept of man's judgment respecting 
his own. 

As the Psalmist, when stung with conscious guilt, 
felt that God could receive nothing at his hands but 
" a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart ; " so 
may every individual of this world feel, and lay upon 
the altar of God such a sacrifice. 



66 . OUR HOLY HILL. 



PRIDE ABASED. 



What standards of judging, men set up ! How 
complacently they dictate to the Almighty, and ar- 
raign him at their own tribunals! Mortal tongues 
often utter words too great for beings who are not 
older than the heavens ; not wiser than God. Even 
the meek of the earth are at times left to speak unad- 
visedly relative to their Father in heaven. But the 
errings of such are commonly brief. He who has 
taken them under his disciplining care brings them 
to timely repentance and confusion of face, because 
of their ill-ordered words. 

The man of Uz is a renewed person, when first he 
is made to appear before us in the vivid picture of his 
life, painted by Inspiration. He had been chosen in 
the counsels of the Eternal, not only to be an heir of 
glory, but to endure great trials for the sake of the 
elect who should come after him. Jehovah speaks 
to the world by living examples, as well as by didac- 
tic announcements. 

Job, from the height of terrestrial opulence, influ- 
ence, and enjoyment, is suddenly plunged into the 
depths of poverty, bereavement, and physical suffer- 
ing. God, whose pity toward those that fear him is 
the most tender, allows his servant for a season to en- 
dure the burnings of a furnace intensely heated. With 
surprising meekness, Job bears for a while the flames 
which envelop him. At length, however, his anguish 
overcomes him ; and in the bitterness of his soul he 
curses the day of his birth. " Let that day be dark- 



PRIDE ABASED. 67 

ness ; let not God regard it from above, neither let the 
light shine upon it." Friends, nominal, nay, real 
but mistaken, aggravate his condition by charging 
upon him a guiltiness proportionate to his distress. 
Shortsighted creatures easily pass false verdicts. 
Earth is not a theatre for God's retributive justice. 
Tokens, however, there are here of what is to be in 
another sphere. Signals are, indeed, now given of 
what shall be hereafter. But God's books of remem- 
brance will not be opened till that day, for which all 
others are made ; then, shall he award righteously 
and finally the children of men. 

Long is the controversy between Job and his con- 
dolers. Each party is led to employ strong terms. 
But, though their coming together in sharp dispute be 
like the contact of steel and flint, a large amount of 
important truth is elicited by their discussions. Strike 
what they uttered from the Bible, and how great a 
loss would this volume sustain ! Controversialists 
are wont, in the heat of argument, to speak, at least 
sometimes, extravagantly, and to say what a cool judg- 
ment would pronounce unwarrantable. It is not till 
the Most High interposes, that Job and his kindred 
close their protracted debate. From a whirlwind, God 
speaks to the suffering patriarch, and gives utterance 
to a series of interrogatories, sublime in their diction, 
comprehensive in their import, and humbling in their 
effect. The man of Uz is overcome by them, con- 
fesses himself vile, and resolves to lay his hand upon 
his mouth, and his mouth in the dust. " Once have I 
spoken, but I will not answer ; yea twice, but I will 
proceed no further." From the depths of self-abase- 
ment he sends up to God a confession of his former 



68 OUR HOLY HILL. 

blindness, and consequent self-righteousness. " I have 
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine 
eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent 
in dust and ashes." 

Those ivhose views of God are clear think humbly of 
themselves. What do such views imply ? That God 
is regarded as highly exalted; as far above all created 
things ; as independent ; as standing in no need of 
aught that exists extraneous to himself. " Thine, O 
Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory 
and the victory and the majesty." " Behold, God is 
great, and we know him not ; neither can the number 
of his years be searched out." 

Those who possess clear views of God regard him 
as perfect in his nature, purposes, and proceedings. 
It is deemed by them impossible that he should act 
or think or feel wrongly. He is believed to be immu- 
tably benevolent, wise, just, and powerful. Though 
clouds and darkness appear to be about him, yet the 
conviction is firm, that " righteousness and judgment 
are the habitation of his throne." Perfectly holy, per- 
fectly good, and perfect in all respects, is our God. 
So they believe, whose views of him are correct. 
However dark may be his providences in respect to 
themselves ; and however severe the chastisements 
they are called by him to endure, one thought remains 
undisturbed — God is perfect. 

Such views recognize the Almighty as everywhere. 
He is infinitely exalted, and at the same time is 
" not far from every one of us, for in him we live and 
move and have our being." Higher than the highest 
heavens is the Lord of hosts, yet no one on earth can 
go from his presence- 



PRIDE ABASED. 69 

Wliy do those whose views of God are as just ex- 
pressed think humbly of themselves ? Such views ren- 
der conspicuous the comparative nothingness of man. 
What are we ? How recently we began to live ! 
How soon we must die ! At present our knowledge 
is very limited, and, should we be privileged to devote 
a long life to mental acquisitions, our treasures of 
learning at last will be scarcely more than trivial. 
Great are the works of the Lord ; man's, in compar- 
ison, are as nothing. 

Such views exhibit in contrast man's vileness. No 
moral attribute of God is more manifest than his holi- 
ness, and this always impresses those who have just 
apprehensions of his character. The fact is illustrated 
in the history of his people. Isaiah, having seen a 
manifestation of the divine presence, and having 
heard the Seraphim cry in responsive strains, " Holy, 
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full 
of his glory," exclaimed, " Woe is me, for I am un- 
done ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I 
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips ; for 
mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." 
Nor could the troubled prophet be at peace with 
himself till one of those Seraphim flew unto him, 
" having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken 
with the tongs from off the altar," and laid it upon his 
mouth, saying : " Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and 
thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged." 
It was a just view of God's holiness which caused 
the apostle to cry out, " O wretched man that I am, 
who shall deliver me from the body of this death." 
We have already recited the expressive words of Job, 
when his vision of the Most High became clear. 



70 OUR HOLT HILL. 

While Jonathan Edwards was enjoying some of Kis 
happiest views of God, he wrote the following: — " My 
sinfulness, as I am in myself, has long appeared to 
me perfectly ineffable, and swallowing up all thought 
and imagination, like an infinite deluge or mountains 
over my head. I know not how to express better 
what my sins appear to me to be, than by heaping 
infinite upon infinite and multiplying infinite by infi- 
nite." 

God may have designed to shadow forth the holi- 
ness of his own nature by the purity of his works. 
The sun shines only with pure light. Plants, shrubs, 
and trees are naturally free from all impurity. Their 
roots draw out of the ground only what will promote 
the pure growth of the trunk and the branches, and 
produce fruit. Diseased trees there may be, but they 
are exceptions ; are unnatural. How quickly does 
water which has been rendered impure by some 
means run itself pure, or become so by standing. It 
deposits soon in sediment whatever has riled its cur- 
rent or clouded its crystalline clearness ! How white 
is the snow when it falls from the clouds ! Flowers 
will blossom in the midst of poisonous exhalations, 
yet be themselves fragrant and unstained. Pure, also, 
is God's revelation ! No sin does it countenance ; 
none does it allow. Impurity, even in feeling, is rep- 
robated by it. To eternal infamy it dooms all who 
die sinners. 

Such views of God exhibit our ill desert. Some 
persons deem it cruel that they should be threatened 
with everlasting banishment from the divine favor. 
What, they ask, have we done to merit damnation ? 
If such should obtain those views of the Almighty 



PRIDE ABASED. 71 

here considered, they would quickly cease from their 
murmurings. Now they have no clear perception of 
his holiness, consequently none of their own sinful- 
ness. They know not Jehovah's moral perfections, 
and hence are utterly blind to the sin within them- 
selves. Christ, to whom every heart is open, has 
spoken of it as a fountain, whence issue " evil 
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, cov- 
etousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil 
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." No person who 
has not experimentally become acquainted with deep 
conviction for sin, and has not received the renewing 
grace of the Spirit, can be sure that the very worst 
of the evils named by Christ in the above catalogue 
will not burst like a devouring flame from his heart. 
Iniquity may be long latent, yet alive. 

What remnants of evil there are in hearts truly 
renewed by the Holy Ghost,! Even the Christian 
must watch over himself without ceasing, or he will 
become a prey to the evil still within him. The holi- 
est of the elect now on probation are momentarily 
in danger of sinning openly and flagrantly against 
Jehovah. 

Further, it may be observed that clear views of God 
show man his ill desert by making the duty of obedi- 
ence plain. Whoever has just conceptions of Jeho- 
vah's attributes and works must see that each intelli- 
gent creature is bound by every rational considera- 
tion, and by positive precepts which are immutable, 
to adore and love him. Submission to the require- 
ments of the Almighty is our imperious duty ; a re- 
fusal in any case must be a heinous offence against him. 

It is only in the bright light of God's perfections, 



72 OUR HOLT HILL. 

that one rightly appreciates the divine method of rem- 
edying the evil of sin. The atonement, as typified 
for generations, and as effected on the cross by Christ, 
has no impressive significancy to him whose visions 
of the Most High are indistinct. We feel our ill de- 
sert when we perceive the purport of Christ's death ; 
and this event is an enigma, if we are not so en- 
lightened as to see that God is holy, holy, holy ; also 
just and good. 

Inspiration asks, " Wherefore doth the wicked con- 
temn God ? " W T e might wonder at the occasion of 
such an interrogatory ! How comes it to pass that a 
being whose breath is in his nostrils should spurn the 
greatness and the authority of Him whose power is 
omnipotent, whose nature is perfect, whose word is 
law throughout the universe, and that law unchange- 
able ? Whence came thy impudence toward God, 
thou impotent sinner ? It originated in thy unholy 
heart, and is encouraged by thy sinful blindness. 
Thou hast not yet opened thine eyes upon the ter- 
rors which encompass the Eternal. 

Can the Christian be proud ? Can one be clothed 
in the robes of his Redeemer's righteousness, and 
make a display of such apparel ? Can he boast of 
being one of the elect ? Nothing of this nature can 
characterize him, whose views of God are scriptural. 
" Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto 
the Lord, which am but dust and ashes." " Oh let 
not the Lord be angry, and I will speak." Thus 
spake Abraham. With similar prostration of soul, 
with a like sense of God's overwhelming greatness, 
did the Old Testament saints ordinarily address 
him. They correctly apprehended his nature and 



MEEKNESS. 73 

perfections. Lord, " What is man, that thou art 
mindful of him ? " 

How will visions of God hereafter overpower those 
who shall have entered eternity, unshielded by the 
interposing banner of the Mediator! Jehovah is not 
despised by the ungodly who have passed the river of 
death. Vile earthlings, this side of that gloomy 
stream, proudly pour contempt upon the law and 
upon the gospel. Not so will they indulge them- 
selves when they shall have gone over its time and 
eternity dividing current. Here, the greatest of sin- 
ners freely speak in terms of self-justification. There, 
unholy lips will be sealed in self-condemning silence. 
Come down, proud mortal into the very dust ; loathe 
now thyself, as thou oughtest to do, and God shall 
exalt thee in due time — exalt thee to heaven's high? 
ness. 



MEEKNESS.* 

What is It ? A mental state, not common to all 
persons ; not an attribute of sinful nature, but, in part, 
an acquisition ; a fruit of regeneration. It has been 
called an easiness of spirit. Its character, however, 
must be gathered not from abstract definitions so 
much as from the effects produced by it. If we see 

* Those familiar with Matthew Henry's Treatise on Meekness, 
will perceive that I have here freely introduced his thoughts.. 

7 



74 OUR HOLY HILL. 

an individual accommodated to every occurrence, 
" easy to himself and to all about him," we may de- 
nominate him meek. Such a one will restrain his 
own passions, and patiently bear with the outbreaks 
of others. " The anger of a meek man is like fire 
struck out of steel, hard to be got out, and, when it is 
out, soon gone." The grace of which we are speak- 
ing preserves one " master of himself, while he con- 
tends to be master of another." A passionate contest 
is often subdued by the meek man, who, imitating 
Aaron when the plague had broken out in Israel, 
seasonably steps in, and stays it by his " censor of a 
soft answer." " He that is slow to anger is better 
than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit, than he 
that taketh a city." A person truly meek attains to a 
conquest of more importance than any ever achieved 
by an Alexander or a Julius Caesar. He reigns 
over his own heart and passions ; exercises suitable 
dominion over himself. 

Meekness renders its possessor submissive to Divine 
Providence, enabling him to endure the varied trials 
of life with manful firmness, and calm acquiescence 
in the wisdom, justice, and benevolence of the Al- 
mighty. " It lays the soul like white paper under 
God's pen." Whatever characters he shall see fit to 
inscribe on this imperishable nature, meekness feels 
sure must be right. Yet this grace is not indifference. 
The meekest of Jehovah's rational creatures are keenly 
alive to suffering ; their susceptibilities are acute. In- 
juries, though never retaliated, are felt. Obtuseness 
of sensibility forms no element in the composition of 
genuine meekness. Whenever the rod of the Lord 
is laid upon the meek, they are sensible of deserving 



MEEKNESS. 75 

it, and bow penitently beneath its sore inflictions. 
Why, they ask themselves, should we complain? 
How very great is the goodness of God to us ! It is 
of his mercies " that we are not consumed ; because 
his compassions fail not." Surely, our sins are 
greater than his indignation. We will praise his 
name. Our lot in life might have been vastly more 
trying than it is. The eminent saints of the earth have 
frequently endured afflictions, compared with which 
all that we suffer is unworthy of being named ; and 
what tears did Christ shed, what agonies did he 
endure! 

Those possessed of meekness bow reverently to the 
authority of the Scriptures. Proof that these sacred 
pages were infallibly inspired is to them perfectly 
satisfactory. Difficulties in the Bible, over which the 
proud stumble into perdition, produce no unhallowed 
effect upon their minds. It is an observation of Au- 
gustine, that " true meekness will prevent us from 
opposing either the obvious parts of Scripture, severely 
as they may task our vices, or the mysterious parts, 
in reading which, vanity may suggest that we could 
have dictated what is more profitable." Pride and 
self-esteem demand why certain things are in that 
volume by Christians believed to be holy. Meekness 
says : " Let the word of the Lord come, and if I had 
six hundred necks I would bow them all to it." 

In a word, meekness is a Christian grace, without 
which there can be no consistency maintained by 
professors of religion. Entirely destitute of it, the 
soul will inevitably be arrayed at times against the 
works, providence, and word of the Lord ; but this 
brings it to a lamb-like acquiescence in all the doings 
of the Most High. 



76 OUR HOLY HILL. 



Its Reward. 

The meek enjoy a reward in their own spirits. 
" That which would break an angry man's heart 
will not break a meek man's sleep." Most people 
are constantly chafed in their feelings, and are like 
sharp knives which " cut their own case." Passionate 
creatures can enjoy but little of existence as it glides, 
and their incessant excitement causes the sands of 
life, as those in a shaken hour-glass, to run faster 
than they ought. It is impossible for any person to 
dwell long among mankind, and not meet with 
crossing events. If one's soul be not to some extent 
pervaded by the feeling we are describing, " he lays 
all his comforts at the mercy of every wasp that 
strikes at him ; " nor will he find the number of such 
assailants few, or the wounds made by them harmless. 
Many take pleasure in harassing the irritable ; in 
striking sparks upon their tinder-like passions. The 
meek composedly pursue the course of duty marked 
out for them by the overruling providence of God, 
whose work " is best done where it is done without 
noise." 

Jehovah bestows special favors upon the meek. 
He " overlooks heaven and earth to give a favorable 
look " to them ; and he causes their souls to be " a 
Goshen in the midst of the Egypt of this world." 
They enjoy a holy peace, a heavenly calm, while the 
sea of life may be very tempestuous. God guides 
them, teaches them his way ; he arises in judgment 
" to save all the meek of the earth ; " he lifts them up, 
and " casteth the wicked down to the ground ; " he 
beautifies " the meek with salvation." 



MEEKNESS. 77 

Christ, in his sermon on the mount, says : " Blessed 
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." The 
latter part of this declaration may admit of various 
shades of exposition. 

In the first place, it may be stated that the meek 
do, in an important sense, now enjoy what this pre- 
diction purports ; they delight in earth's beauties and 
bounties, in its cultivated fields and wide spread for- 
ests, in its lawns and lakes, its flowers and fruits, in 
whatever is rich and instructive, inviting and com- 
manding. The meek are children of God, and heirs 
of their heavenly Father's estate. Sinful principles 
and practices, adopted by the world, they must tread 
beneath their feet ; but not the works of the infinitely 
wise Builder, all of which praise him who made 
them. 

In the second place, Jesus may have reference to a 
sentiment frequently expressed in the Scriptures, that 
at some future period the saints shall literally occupy 
the earth. The idea that the Messiah is soon to re- 
turn for the setting up of a temporal kingdom among 
men, the writer does not believe countenanced in the 
Bible ; but the doctrine that righteousness shall ulti- 
mately triumph and long prevail, he considers divinely 
and distinctly taught. When that most desirable 
period shall arrive, then will the meek " inherit the 
earth." Bat little value was attached to meekness, 
when the Son of the Highest appeared among men. 
Worldliness, in its numberless forms, prevailed in the 
church. Pharisaical pride and Sadducean scepticism 
held extensive sway in the land of the elect nation. 
The rich, the learned, and the powerful were regarded 

7* 



78 OUR HOLY HILL. 

as peculiarly happy. Christ passed his highest en- 
comium upon a class then generally despised; the 
quiet in spirit, the lowly in mind. 

In the third place, it is more natural to regard the 
Saviours promise as presented in figurative language. 
The term translated earth often has reference to a 
particular country, as, for instance, Canaan. Such, 
probably, is its signification here. Israel was God's 
ancient church, and Palestine was the inheritance of 
that people. Their land was a type of the heavenly 
country, which the meek shall inherit. In the lan- 
guage of another : " Here the tranquil possession of 
the earthly Canaan, which w T as already used in the 
Old Testament to denote the coming of the Mes- 
siah's kingdom, is employed by Christ to describe 
the privileges and retributions of his spiritual king- 
dom in another life." 

At the very threshold of his ministry, the great 
Teacher meant to inculcate the sentiment, that ter- 
restrial ambition would meet w T ith no favor under his 
reign ; also to prepare his followers for enduring 
<with holy patience the trials that might await them, 
till an entrance should be ministered to them into 
the joys of his dominion, in the everlasting paradise 
of God. 

While we give our preference to the last of the 
three expositions of the words of the Redeemer, 
neither of the others is excluded. Indeed, we may 
consider them as all intended by Him. The meek 
are the only people beneath the heavens who are 
happy in the present life ; to them only is promised 
.the enjoyment of that glory which shall eventually 



MEEKNESS. 79 

cover the earth as the waters do the sea ; for them, 
and for none of a contrary spirit, are prepared crowns 
of fadeless honor. 



How acquired. 

If such be the nature and reward, how desirable the 
possession of meekness. By what means shall it be 
obtained ; for, as already stated, it is not an endowment 
which every one has as a matter of course. Obsti- 
nacy and rebellion characterize the unrenewed heart. 
Meekness is, in part, a fruit of the Spirit. Impeni- 
tence must be put off before this excellence can 
be worn as a garment. Only those who learn of 
Christ are like him meek and lowly in heart. No 
other characteristic more uniformly marks the unre- 
newed among men than does pride. Some possess 
naturally a gentle disposition ; they are mild toward 
their fellow-creatures, yet often wrathful toward 
their Maker. At times, when he tries them, latent 
hostility comes forth. Let none think to cultivate 
this meekness by simply disciplining their social 
feelings ; their gentle affections. Such a method is 
altogether superficial ; it is only making " clean the 
outside of the cup," and leaving the inside " full of 
extortion and excess," which sin lay upon the old 
Pharisees. 

It is no trifling performance to run one's mind into 
the heavenly mould made for it by the Saviour. The 
work cannot be performed by unaided human skill. 
On God's mercy we must throw ourselves for grace 
to begin the cultivation of meekness. The germ 
whence such a heavenly plant can be reared is itself 



80 OUR HOLY HILL. 

an exotic on earth ; is a gift sent down from the celes- 
tial Canaan. But, thanks to the abounding good- 
ness of the Lord, millions of such plants grow in that 
uncursed soil, and the Holy Ghost is engaged in 
transplanting them into this terrestrial territory. 

Is thy heart, reader, broken for sin ? Is thy spirit 
contrite in view of thine iniquities ? Dost thou hum- 
bly desire to be an adopted child of the Infinite Fa- 
ther ? then is there even now a germ in thy soul ; the 
beginning of enduring meekness. But so small is 
it, that many prayers and much holy culture are re- 
quisite to cause it to grow and produce those good 
fruits which secure God's blessing. 

But one instance of meekness, in perfection, can be 
found on record, and that is the life of Christ. He 
was a perfect exemplar of it. The best saints on earth 
are yet sinners ; and at times, perhaps, passion gets the 
upper hand ; still its stormy sway is not continued a 
great while. Moses, we read, " was very meek, above 
all the men which were upon the face of the earth." 
David exhibited the fruits of this grace remarkably 
when persecuted by Saul, and cursed by Shimei. In 
general the prophets seem to have been preeminently 
controlled by meekness. The same observation is 
true in respect to the apostles and some of their asso- 
ciates. Behold Stephen dying by the hands of cruel 
persecutors. He prays, " Lord, lay not this sin to 
their charge. And when he had said this, he fell 
asleep." It was a fact in regard to his contemporaries 
in sacred service, that, being reviled, they blessed ; be- 
ing persecuted, they piously suffered it. Matthew 
Henry, with an army of faithful " Dissenters" suf- 
fered great persecution, yet bore it all most sub- 



MAN PRIMEVAL. 81 

missively ; and he would sometimes say, " How pleas- 
ant it is to hear the bird in the bosom sing sweetly." 



MAN PRIMEVAL. 

Respecting man's origin and primeval condition, we 
have no reliable information, except in the Bible. 
What it contains is not only our sole authority, but, 
to every genuine believer in the inspiration of the 
Scriptures, their teachings possess absolute authority. 

Man is a creature. He is not self-existent, but 
made, formed in part from dust. His outer being is 
material. What of him is material, however, consti- 
tutes but the exterior of a complex personage. Within 
is a spirit, the soul, destitute of which he would not 
be a man. 

The account given in the Bible of man's origin is 
brief but distinct. Nothing in it is irrational or mys- 
tified. Human language does not contain more defi- 
nite statements. God makes man, and man appears 
in perfection. The term man is generically used in 
the history of the origin of the human species, and 
designates the individuals of the two sexes. The first 
pair constituted the first man, and that pair was the 
sole fountain from which the family of man has 
spread over the continents and islands of this globe. 

God stamped his own image on the first man. 
What was that image ? The Scriptures do not spe- 
cifically inform us ; do not state, in direct terms, what 



OZ OUR HOLY HILL. 

it was ; yet, by implication and various hints, they 
doubtless reveal its nature, at least in part. God is a 
perfect being. He always has been so. Man was 
created perfect ; not perfect as is God, nor as is an 
angel, but as a man. He was perfectly adapted to 
the sphere for which he was designed. God could 
not have improved him. Among all the millions that 
might succeed the first man, not one could surpass 
him in any of the attributes of a man. This image 
included perfect holiness. So the Scriptures teach. 
Adam and Eve were as holy when they were first 
created as Jehovah himself is holy; not only were 
their natures as free from moral stain as is his, 
but they were positively holy. Immutability was 
not included in this image, for man was created mu- 
table ; and his mutability was a part of his perfection 
as man ; for mutability and dependence enter into 
the idea of a creature. Language was included in 
the resemblance of man to his Maker. It were 
doubtless as easy for Adam to communicate his ideas 
on any subject the first day of his existence, as it was 
for God to communicate his. Man, at first, in a 
limited degree possessed intuitive knowledge ; and 
words, expressive of it, flowed from his lips with as 
much freedom as breath from his nostrils. Thus the 
Bible warrants us to believe. Man was created a 
moral agent ; and his moral agency was as perfect in 
its sphere as God's can be in his. We are not to 
suppose that man was any more compelled to sin by 
the laws of his free agency, than God is by the exer- 
cise of his free agency. Man was created to rule all 
the orders of beings inferior to himself, while he was 
to be amenable to God, and fidelity to him was tested 



MAN PRIMEVAL. 83 

by a single interdict. Of the fruit of a certain tree, 
man must not eat. What the species or genus of the 
tree was the Scriptures do not inform us. The fruit 
may have been the most inviting, in outward aspect, 
of all that hung upon the trees of Eden, or it may 
have been the least so. The tree was selected by 
God as a test of obedience. Scripture gives no inti- 
mation that man could have been placed in more 
favorable circumstances for standing in primitive holi- 
ness than he was. If he must be tried at all, he 
probably enjoyed as good an opportunity as he could 
himself desire. Nor is it to be supposed that Adam 
or Eve objected to the testing of their fidelity. Pro- 
bation, just as their Maker ordained it, doubtless met 
their joyful approval. 

Laws have penalties ; are useless without them. 
Divine interdicts must be heeded, or consequences of 
a penal nature will follow a disregard. Death was 
the penalty threatened to our first parents if they 
should not abstain from the fruit of the specified tree. 
What did the term mean, as employed in the threat- 
ening ? God knew what he meant by it, and has he 
not told us what he meant ? Did he not design that 
all which has flowed as a direct consequence of dis- 
obedience, should flow, provided the interdict were not 
regarded ? Whether Adam and Eve understood the 
comprehensive import of the penalty, the Bible does 
not state. It was not necessary that they should 
understand it, in order for a fair trial. God was their 
Sovereign; to ask for reasons and explanations of 
him, formed no part of their daily duties. It was 
enough for them, that God's interdict was before them. 
What had they to do with the consequences of vio- 



84 OUR HOLY HILL. 

lating it, as the great motive to obedience? To 
obey from the heart was their only proper concern. 
Still, we may lawfully hold that the penalty was 
clearly revealed to them ; that God acquainted them 
with the evil which would follow the eating of the 
forbidden fruit. 

The first man" sinned ; the two individuals consti- 
tuting that man ate of the tree which was prohibited. 
The circumstances of the case are succinctly narrated 
in the third chapter of Genesis. That account may 
have been first written by Adam and transmitted 
down to Moses, who inserted it in the Pentateuch, as 
he was instructed to do by the Spirit of the Lord. 
It was there in the time of Christ, and recognized by 
him as a part of God's infallible revelation. Our 
Saviour doubtless received it in its simplicity, and he 
commands us to do the same. No writer in the New 
Testament affords the least intimation that this nar- 
rative is not to be taken in its most obvious sense. 
Nor is there aught in the statement peculiarly difficult 
of comprehension, unless it be the implied union of 
Satan with a literal serpent, and the twofold nature 
of the penalty falling, at the same time, upon the real 
serpent, and the evil agent acting through it. The 
order in the process of the transgression is recorded. 
" She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave 
also unto her husband with her, and he did eat." An 
apostle has said that " Adam was not deceived ; but 
the woman being deceived was in the transgression." 
1 Tim. 2 : 14. On the day of their disobedience, these 
first sinners of earth began to experience the penalty 
threatened. They died, as God had declared ; died 
before the earth had revolved again on its axis. In a 



MAN PRIMEVAL. 85 

moment they were dead in sin ; at once they became 
mortal ; immediately they were under sentence of 
eternal death — banishment from the favor of their 
Father in heaven. Had not God interposed in mercy, 
the first pair must kave been left to suffer perpetually 
the penalty of their folly. 

It is in vain for us to attempt to ascertain how mo- 
tives could influence holy beings to transgress a pre- 
cept of God. We have no light on this part of the 
subject. • Man's first sin, considered in its psychologic 
aspect, is a mystery wholly unexplained ; yet who can 
doubt that God's dealings with our first parents in 
the matter of their trial were perfectly holy and in- 
finitely benevolent ? 

With the Scriptures for our guide, we cannot fail 
to perceive that the sin of the first pair ruined their 
posterity. Such is the uniform current of the divine 
testimony, without so much as a counter-intimation ; 
and surely facts in human history, so far as we see 
them or hear of them, accord with the Bible view. 
Besides, we are individually filled with evidences of 
our own ruin by nature. Adam and Eve were the 
two pillars on which rested the moral fabric of this 
world ; and when they fell, the whole building came 
down. We who find ourselves in the ruins may mur- 
mur at those treacherous pillars; but murmuring will 
neither alter the fact of that ruin, nor restore the pros- 
trate pillars to their erect positions. So completely 
are we involved in the ruin, that, if no restorer come 
to our aid from another world, our extrication is im- 
possible. But is it right that we should have been 
ruined by those distant progenitors ? Surely it was 
not right that Adam and Eve should transgress as they 

8 



86 OUR HOLY HILL. 

did ; the sinfulness of their act consists in its wrong- 
fulness ; but it was right for God to permit this ruin, 
in which we find ourselves ; for he surely did permit it, 
and claims that he did right in the permission. If we 
believe Him, we shall believe it was right for him to 
do just as he has done. Is it thought that each indi- 
vidual of the race should be placed on a trial similar 
to that of our first parents ? Omniscience may have 
seen that the most benevolent arrangement conceiv- 
able was the very one adopted. Indeed, we are 
bound to believe that it was foreseen to be so. All 
moral creatures are, probably, placed for a season on 
trial in some form* God may have known that every 
child of Adam would fall, though individually circum- 
stanced as favorably for a happy issue as was the 
original pair. 

Has not God, at least by implication, revealed the 
fact, that great advantages to the race flow from his 
having constituted Adam its federal head, instead of 
placing each individual on trial for himself? The 
very day in which the first sin was committed, Jeho- 
vah came in mercy to those primal transgressors. A 
second Adam was promised, who should never sin, 
but restore the ruins of the first Adam. Immediately 
upon the forfeiture of his original privileges, man was 
favored with a new probation. His descendants are 
indeed born sinners ; but a Saviour, almighty to save, 
bends in mercy over the infant from the very com- 
mencement of its rational existence. Countless myr- 
iads of little human beings, dying while infants, are 
received, it is believed, into eternal blessedness, in 
consequence of the death of Christ. None, dying 
prior to the arrival of the period of their moral ac- 



MAN PKIMEVAL. 87 

countability, perish, though by nature they are defiled, 
and are under the condemnation which rests on the 
race, till deliverance from it be secured by a baptism 
of the Holy Ghost, Being appointed to so early a 
death, they are, without an act of faith on their part, 
made the recipients of holiness. All who reach the 
period when probation begins are, then, on a platform 
of mercy. Christ is ready to aid each, and his grace 
is sufficient ; nor is one of the entire race compelled 
by the depravity of his nature to reject the gracious 
offer. Conscience never excuses the sinner ; God 
never excuses him. Whatever his natural aversion 
to holiness, he is accountable for his thoughts, words, 
and acts. Daily is the sinner self-condemned ; and 
the finally lost sinner will condemn none but himself, 
though he will eternally suffer. 

Some are ready to charge God with violating the 
laws of immutable equity by constituting Adam our 
federal head, and by permitting him to ruin the face. 
Who bring this charge ? Not the millions who never 
doubted they were born sinners, but who, having 
fought the good fight, are now in heaven ; nor do 
humble Christians on earth bring it. The idea of pre- 
ferring such a charge is as far from their thoughts as 
this footstool of Jehovah is from his paradise on high. 



OUR HOLY HILL. 



GOD'S PARTICULAR PROVIDENCE. 

Those believing in the existence of a Supreme Be- 
ing are divided in opinion respecting the degree of 
care which he exercises over his works. Some con- 
sider the operations of nature as the moving of Jeho- 
vah's clock-work. The machinery of the world, when 
urst set up, is by them supposed to have been put in 
motion, and destined to run with no very trouble- 
some variations till the omnipotent Creator shall by 
a touch of his finger stop the pendulum. Or, to ex- 
press the sentiment of this class in a different man- 
ner, they hold to only a general providence. Others 
believe in a particular providence, and, of course, also 
in a general, for the grand total of the particular con- 
stitutes a general. Careful investigation forces the 
conclusion upon us that the two kinds of providences 
named are inseparable. The general and the particu- 
lar must coexist. 

By a particular providence we understand a con- 
stant care and superintendence exercised by God over 
all his works ; he preserves them and uses them ac- 
cording to his own pleasure ; also that he is the 
absolute Sovereign of the emotions, thoughts, and 
volitions of every intelligent creature in the universe. 

By using the phrase particular providence, we mean 
to say that nothing occurs without God's permission 
and upholding presence, and that nothing is permit- 
ted which he will not, in some way, caifse to illus- 
trate the perfections of his own nature. This provi- 



god's particular providence. 89 

dence is a carrying out minutely and constantly of 
that eternal counsel or decree of Jehovah, " whereby 
for his own glory he hath foreordained whatsoever 
comes to pass." 

Such, in brief, is our exposition of the phraseology, 
particular providence. Some of the developments of 
this providence may be designated special. If God 
exercise a particular providence, there doubtless are 
numerous instances of special applications of it. If 
there be no particular providence, then there can be 
no special providences, though there may be miracu- 
lous interpositions. 

In proof that God exercises a particular providence, 
we derive a presumptive argument from the fact that 
he is the Creator of all things. Material and mental 
existences are offsprings of his power. Moral exer- 
cises are not direct effects of God's creative power, 
but the products of moral agents whose existence is 
derived directly from ,God. Sin cannot be a creation 
of the Almighty. 

Being the Author of all created things and beings, 
God must have perfect knowledge of their attributes. 
He cannot be supposed to be ignorant of the works 
of his own hands, the products of his own volition. 
If he be not omniscient, he is not infinite ; if not infi- 
nite, not supreme. But the idea of infinite perfec- 
tion enters into our ideas of God. If all things were 
created by God, then all things are known by him, 
and subject to him. He can do with them as shall 
seem good unto him. 

Again, we may argue from the fact that God had 
a particular end in view when he brought into exist- 
ence a universe of dependent beings and objects. It 
8* 



yU OUR HOLY HILL. 

would be most unreasonable to suppose that creation 
were a random product of Omnipotence. Besides, 
the works of nature exhibit unequivocal evidences of 
an all-pervading infinite design. It is apparent that in 
no instance was it God's object simply to create some- 
thing ; it was to bring into existence objects and 
agents for a specific end. 

Furthermore, we may argue from the fact that 
God's specific end in creation was his own glory. 
For this purpose he created all things, and for it he 
now upholds them. If, for the accomplishment of 
such an object, the establishment of a particular prov- 
idence were by him deemed desirable, he unques- 
tionably established it. Does it not seem obvious 
that if Jehovah is to be glorified by all his works, he 
must constantly and minutely attend to them, exer- 
cising over them absolute control ? The entire gov- 
ernment of this world might be marred essentially if 
a single particle of dust should be excluded from the 
immediate inspection and ordering of Jehovah. The 
smallest mote may sustain a relation to the Divine 
administration not less important than does the 
largest mountain. A nation's destinies may be 
affected for ages by a circumstance in itself the most 
trivial. The exercise of a particular providence can- 
not be otherwise than a constant and impressive ex- 
hibition of God's wisdom and goodness. Such an 
exhibition as can be made in no other way, yet such 
a one as the Most High would not fail to make. 

In proof that God exercises a particular providence, 
we have his own explicit testimony. He has caused 
the fact to be variously but impressively presented in 
the Scriptures. " He sendeth the springs into the 



god's particular providence. 91 

valleys which run among the hills." " He causeth 
the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the ser- 
vice of man." It is said of the living occupants of 
the great deep, that they wait upon the Lord for their 
food, and that he opens his hand to supply them. 
" He giveth snow like wool, he scattereth the hoar- 
frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels, 
who can stand before rlis cold." " The lot is cast into 
the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the 
Lord." Jehovah asserts of himself: "I form the 
light, and create darkness ; I make peace, and create 
evil. I the Lord do all these things." 

Nowhere in Scripture is the doctrine of a par- 
ticular providence more distinctly taught than in 
some of the discourses of Christ. " Behold the 
fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they 
reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your Heavenly 
Father feedeth them." He asserts that God clothes 
the grass of the field, " which to-day is, and to-morrow 
is cast into the oven." The following expressions, 
however, are the most striking : " Are not two spar- 
rows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not 
fall on the ground without your Father. But the 
very hairs of your head are all numbered." The 
original word here rendered sparrow denotes any 
small bird, and the term translated farthing designates 
the lowest pecuniary value. If two sparrows are sold 
for a single farthing, one must be of less than any 
estimated value. On another occasion, Christ spoke 
of five sparrows as sold for two farthings, and added, 
not one of them is forgotten before God. Man 
hardly deems the sparrow worthy of notice ; yet, so 
important an existence is this little bird in the esti- 



92 OUR HOLY HILL. 

mation of God, and so directly is it under his care, 
that without his knowledge and consent it cannot 
fall to the ground ; cannot, except by his permission, 
be destroyed ; or, as some interpreters would explain 
our Lord's language, the sparrow shall not light upon 
the ground in search of food without God's directing 
care. If the Almighty exercise such a special regard 
to little things, surely he does' not neglect or over- 
look those that are of greater importance. 

Of not less significancy is the other passage above 
quoted from the Saviour's teachings, " But the very 
hairs," etc. While this statement had a direct refer- 
ence to the persons about him, it was not limited to 
them. Evidently he intended to inculcate by it the 
doctrine of God's particular providence as extending 
to all persons. The smallest of human interests are 
matters of concern to God. 

Numerous additional statements might be selected 
from the inspired volume, in proof that God exer- 
cises a particular providence over the world, for 
" nothing can be more clear from Scripture than that 
God takes part in all that happens among mankind." 
The sun, moon, and stars, the solid earth, the ever 
changing sea, every phenomenon in nature, whether 
common or extraordinary, revolutions in communi- 
ties, States, kingdoms, and empires, are under his 
supervision. He builds up or destroys as he pleases. 
" For of him and through him and to him are all 
things." 

Those who wrote as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost always represent the Almighty as immediately 
concerned in the phenomena of nature ; also in the 
events of the civil and of the moral world. Some 



god's particular providence. 93 

would explain such passages of the Bible as ascribe 
thunder, lightning, wind, rain, hail, and snow to God's 
agency as contrary to sound philosophy, as the off- 
spring of Jewish superstition, or as mere figures of 
speech. Let infidels thus treat the glowing represen- 
tations of Heaven's revelation ; but the children of 
Zion should entertain different thoughts, and employ 
a more reverent phraseology. Figures of speech the 
Bible does contain ; but they all teach facts. God 
does not publish fictions. He has not inspired men 
to write falsehoods. Divine poetry is true to nature, 
true to God. When an inspired man speaks of 
thunder as the voice of the Lord, though the words 
may be figurative they set forth a fact. Christ's teach- 
ings abound in figures of speech, yet he taught nothing 
but truth. What is false in fact, the Bible cannot 
inculcate ; but it does assure us, that " the soul of 
every living thing and the breath of all mankind " 
are absolutely at the Divine disposal. This volume 
does teach that " it is not in man that walketh to 
direct his steps ; " that we are in the hands of 
Jehovah as the clay is in the potter's hand. The 
Scriptures require us to regard God as with Joseph in 
all the changes through which he passed, from the 
time when he was sold to the Ishmaelites, till he was 
enthroned over Egypt. His history, we doubt not, 
was intended to show, not only that God exercises a 
particular, but often also a special providence, in the 
earth. Still, Joseph's case is merely one specimen of 
a numerous class. 

When the eternal Creator decided to bring into 
existence this world and #s inhabitants, he designed 
here to make perpetual manifestations of his provi- 



94 OUR HOLY HILL. 

dential care. General laws, indeed, there are; we 
daily witness their operations and the happy results. 
So is there a particular providence, which not unfre- 
quently specially manifests itself. Thus does revela- 
tion teach us, and so do observation and experience 
constrain us to believe. We are shut up to the con- 
viction, that Jehovah uniformly exercises absolute and 
perfect control over all his creatures. Whenever his 
glory requires it, he righteously hardens one or a 
thousand hearts, or brings into humble prostration at 
his footstool rebels against his government, " He 
doeth according to his will in the army of heaven 
and among the inhabitants of the earth." Never, 
however, acting otherwise than in accordance with 
the principles of immutable goodness. 

For Christians, the doctrine of God's particular prov- 
idence is a source of consolation. " They shall not 
be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of 
famine they shall be satisfied." All the affairs of 
earth being under God's constant and immediate 
control, nothing can occur which he does not permit; 
and what he permits, the glory of his name requires. 
The only anxiety which Christians should indulge, 
relates to the performance of their own duties. An 
intimate connection exists between the prayers of the 
pious and the doings of God. Philosophers may 
find it needful, in order to stimulate their cold hearts, 
to demonstrate how prayers can be heard and an- 
swered by general laws ; but a devout soul spurns 
such demonstrations, it having the witness in itself 
and all around it, that prayers are heard in heaven 
and answered on earth. .Faithfulness in religious 
duties is certain to be rewarded. God's immutable 



95 



laws are so framed as to aid the result, but his par- 
ticular and special providences are sure to cause 
it. " In due season we shall reap if we faint not." 
We are not to suppose that every effort made by 
Christians will at once produce a result so specific as 
to be recognized by human inspection. God has 
many ways of rendering useful the pious labors of 
his children. Seed sometimes lies buried a great 
while. We should joyfully leave it to Divine wis- 
dom to produce the harvest in due time. Every 
prayer of the saint is as incense before the throne ; 
but not always is there an immediate answer to it 
returned. " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the 
evening withhold not thine hand ; for thou knowest 
not whether shall prosper either this or that, or 
whether they both shall be alike good." Believers 
are to walk by faith, leaving their labors with him 
" who worketh all things after the counsel of his own 
will." 

Among the Lord's elect are not a few in humble 
circumstances ; they are poor ; yet the doctrine under 
consideration should quiet them. " He that feeds the 
sparrows will not starve the saints." Those trusting 
in the Lord shall be sustained. Before the throne 
above are multitudes, who went there through much 
tribulation ; not a few of them as martyrs. What 
myriads more may yet pass into the celestial realms 
from scenes of bloody persecution ! Still, Christians 
should not fear those who can kill only the body. A 
violent death, viewed in the light of eternity, may 
seem a very desirable mode of exit from time and 
entrance into heaven. Of this we are certain, " All 
things work together for good to them that love 



96 OUR HOLY HILL. 

God." The welfare of his people is perpetually- 
dear to the Lord, and he unceasingly promotes then- 
highest interests. 

To all arrayed against the purposes of the Most 
High, the doctrine under review is most terrific. 
They are at war with him who created them, sustains 
them, and who will do with them as seemeth him good. 
By their wickedness they are reprobating- themselves, 
and God may so order all his providences concerning 
them as to aid their own efforts. They cannot sin 
unseen by Omniscience. " There is no darkness nor 
shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may 
hide themselves." Instruments of cruelty are never 
wielded, except under the inspection of Jehovah. 
Iron, steel, stone, wood, fire, and poison, so often ma- 
lignantly employed by the wicked, are the Lord's, and 
whenever he bids they will testify against the perpe- 
trators of crime. God can give to dead men's bones 
a living voice, and can cause that the cinders of the 
assassinated when burned shall convict the assassin. 
It is in vain, O bloody man, to attempt the effacing 
of thy stains of guilt. " For though thou wash 
thee with nitre and take thee much soap, yet thine 
iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God." 

It is not easy always to decide what should be re- 
garded as special providences, though there are some- 
times events bearing unequivocal marks of being 
such. It is not ordinarily safe to assign a cause for 
providences which may have just occurred, and seem 
to be special. "We see not all the connections of 
events. Time is interwoven with eternity. God's 
permissions in this world stand related to what is 
already past, and to what is in the infinite future. 



god's works are still good. 97 

Rewards and punishments are not distributed in 
full to any while on probation ; yet, even in time, 
there are indications of no doubtful import in regard 
to what lies on the other side of the great boundary 
river. Conscience is not inoperative now. God, as a 
righteous Judge, may be continually exercising his 
power of inflicting punishment on some of the liv- 
ing wicked ; yet not so as to interfere at all with their 
eternal destiny. His children he chastens ; their idols 
he destroys. 



GOD'S WORKS ARE STILL GOOD. 

The Bible begins w T ith the sublime announcement 
that " In the beginning, God created the heaven and 
the earth." When nothing but the divine Being had 
existed, he gave existence to the material universe. 
Where in the ages of eternity that era of creating 
had its date, mortal eye sees not, and human in- 
tellect conceives not. Terrestrial minds are at once 
bewildered as they attempt to look back upon the 
boundless ages prior to the beginning. 

Having stated the fact of a commencement to all 
creating, and that, when the Eternal began to create, 
he at the same time — for so the language may be 
interpreted — gave existence to all that is material, the 
sacred writer proceeds to exhibit in the order of oc- 
currence what is termed the six days' work. Some 
readers, without reflection, have supposed that the 

9 



y» OUR HOLY HILL. 

first verse in Genesis reveals the primeval act of the 
six clays' work. A slight inspection, however, of the 
language will convince any intelligent person that 
the beginning may have preceded those days by mill- 
ions of years. 

When this world had been arranged for man's 
abode, and man had been placed here as a ruler, yet 
subordinate to Heaven's authority, the infinite Crea- 
tor pronounced all his own works " very good." An 
unmannerly sceptic might perhaps feel authorized to 
question the propriety of God's thus complimenting 
himself.- Humble believers, however, will not doubt 
that the works of Jehovah were originally good, 
whatever they may appear to be at present, or his right 
to assert the fact. But are not God's works still good ? 

Come, then, ye who have eyes to see, and intellects 
to appreciate, divine works, and spend a little season 
in visiting the exhibition palace which Jehovah built 
and furnished thousands of years ago. The admis- 
sion is free. 

First in the order of specification is light. " God 
said, let there be light, and there was light." Or, in 
the still terser form of the original, God said " Let 
light be, and light was." We have not time to pause 
and contemplate this early specimen of the sublime 
in language. All the preceding announcements are 
also sublime. Were we to spend our time in writing 
out similar passages from the Bible, and meditating 
on them according to their merits, considered simply 
in a literary point of view, our lives would be de- 
voted to nothing else. 

Light shone upon the* chaotic mass out of which 
was to be formed this terraqueous globe, though not 



god's works are still good. 99 

till the fourth day were those offices assigned to the 
sun and moon, which they have so undeviatingly and 
successfully fulfilled to the present hour. God saw 
the light that it was good when it first played upon 
the formless void. Is it not good to-day ? Has it 
deteriorated ? Is it not as pure now, and as pleasant 
to the eye, as it was when Adam rejoiced in it ? 
Nearly sixty hundred years the sun has ruled the day 
since man first walked in his light ; and does he not 
rule as well now as ever? Is there dimness in his 
beams ? Is his face wrinkled at all by reason of 
age ? Is it probable that even God could make a 
better sun than is the one which gladdens our eyes? 

Behold the queen among the daughters of night, 
that " lesser light" the moon. Is she not as fair, as 
beautiful, as courteous, in this, the nineteenth cen- 
tury, as she was when God appointed her to the 
office which she has hitherto held ? Can we believe 
that in form, or that in her waxings and wanings, 
she has undergone any change, or that the Infinite 
God could now make a better moon than is the one 
whose monthly visits arrest our attention, and en- 
lighten our evening path ? 

God made a. firmament. It still exists. We know 
not that the least shadow of change has passed over 
it. We need not be inquisitive to know precisely 
what the original word was intended to express. 
Philologists tell us, that Moses and the Jews gen- 
erally " supposed the firmament to be spread out like 
a solid hemispheric arch over the earth, shining and 
pellucid as sapphire ; " we may do as we please 
about accepting this statement as truthful. What 
, Moses and other men may have thought is of no 



100 OUR HOLY HILL. 

special concern to us, who rely upon God's testimony ; 
yet probably Moses and the Hebrews generally were 
no idiots in their ideas of the visible heavens. The 
first chapter of Genesis does not consist of human 
opinions, but of a divine revelation. God himself 
here tells us what he did ; and, among other things, 
that he made a firmament. Is it not good ? Can 
we not gaze upward in the clear night of winter, with- 
out the least fear that the heavens will fall upon us ? 
Do the thick clouds of the summer sky hang so un- 
supported as to frighten us, when we are walking 
beneath their overarchings ? Do the waters above 
the firmament, or the treasures of hail and snow 
which seem to be stored in aerial chambers, indicate 
that the original arrangement for their descent upon 
the earth is not as good now as when God formed 
the firmament? Is it possible to believe that Infinite 
Wisdom could now improve upon it % Are not to- 
day the clouds good ? and are not all their treasures 
of water, fire, and thunder perfect in their kind, and 
may they not be regarded as benedictions from the 
hand of God's creative benevolence ? 

But, we must not linger too long in our medita- 
tions upon the heavens. This planet was also pro- 
nounced good. God separated the liquid from the 
solid element, giving the name seas to " the gather- 
ing together of the waters." The dry land, he called 
earth. Once since that arrangement, the fountains of 
the great deep have been broken up by the command 
of God, that he might in righteous wrath submerge a 
wicked world. But, when his judgment was com- 
pleted, the waters returned to their own place, and 
have never again ventured through the barriers reared « 



god's works are still good. 101 

for them by Omnipotency. We do not affirm, that 
the waters and the land are now divided and sub- 
divided locally in all respects as they originally were. 
Changes are continually taking place ; yet what is 
there in the divisions of land and water, as we see 
them, not claiming our approval ? Who would, were 
it in his power, contract the limits of the greatest 
oceans, or extend those of the more circumscribed ? 
What valley or basin, now destitute of it, should be 
filled with water ? Who has reason to sigh over the 
existence of a single lake, river, or spring ? As sober 
inspectors of the globe's surface are we not com- 
pelled to utter our conviction, that no improvement is 
needful in the present arrangement respecting land 
and water? Could we summon the Eternal forth to 
change the boundaries of the mighty deep, why 
should we do it? And surely we would not call for 
a single drop more of rain than he is wont to give, 
nor pray that the present yearly quantity might be 
diminished. 

God bade the earth produce flowers, fruit-trees, 
grass, grain, every thing which should be pleasant to 
the sight of man, and nourishing to the creatures 
whose home was to be in the field. Whether any of 
the original genera, species, or varieties that existed 
when Adam was created became extinct before the 
flood, or by means of that event, or have subsequently, 
human discernment may not be able to decide. Thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of varieties of vegetable 
products have been found and classified. May we 
not yet say, while inspecting Nature's face, and be- 
holding these products of the ground, that God's 
works in this respect are still good ? 

9* 



102 OUR HOLY HILL. 

He who spake and it was done, who commanded 
and it stood fast, bade the waters swarm with living 
creatures ; and, surveying with his own Omniscient 
glance the countless myriads by which his edict had 
peopled the waters, he saw them all to be good. So 
now is that same element populated by similar 
myriads of living creatures. 

Fowl of every, wing, as the original expresses it, 
were also created, some to fly in the air and to sing 
among the branches, and others to dwell on the 
ground. Who, in this age of the world, can lift up 
his voice in anger, or indulge even a stifled murmur, 
at the state of things in this respect ? The dove is 
doubtless as beautiful now as when it came to the 
windows of the ark bearing the olive leaf, and the 
raven was as ravenous then as now. Birds yet sing 
sweetly, very sweetly. Did they, could they, utter 
more charming notes in the bowers of Eden than 
they pour forth upon our ears ? And what variety 
we see in the brute creation ! Is there not a suffi- 
ciency in number ? Is there any lack in adaptation ? 

Man was made as the crowning work of creation ; 
man in the image of G^d. Dust was converted into a 
form of beauty and perfection, such as God in his in- 
finite wisdom and goodness thought best. It was fash- 
ioned to be the recipient of a new created, spotless, 
deathless soul. The inspiration of the Almighty ani- 
mated that material workmanship, and it became at 
once a living being, — a man in the likeness of his 
Maker. In all respects he was a new creature in the 
universe. On the day of Adam's formation, there was 
made for him, and, in part, out of him, an associate — a 
companion — a wife. Sin quickly blighted their pros- 



THE PROFITABLENESS OF PRAYER. 103 

pects of terrestrial felicity, and, ever since the curse 
fell upon them, their posterity have been sufferers — 
sinners. Yet, at this day, God's primeval arrangement 
in regard to the existence of the human race in fami- 
lies remains. Children were born to the first parents ; 
and households of human beings are, in the order of 
Providence, still continued. God has preserved the 
family constitution, though wicked men have sought 
to annihilate it. It is good, very good, an embodi- 
ment of excellence. We believe it is not in the abil- 
ity of the originator to improve it. 



THE PROFITABLENESS OF PRAYER. 

It was anciently vand sceptically inquired, what 
profit there would be in praying to God. Nor is the 
world yet entirely free from that class of persons who 
in olden time uttered such an interrogatory. 

The writer inclines more and more to the opinion, 
that infidel questions are often answered best by 
silent neglect. Theologians and Christian philoso- 
phers do not, he apprehends, add to the prayerful ness 
of saints ; do not impress sinners with a sense of their 
duty to pray, by attempting to explain the method of 
God's hearing and answering human petitions. 

How can the immutable Jehovah grant special 
favors on condition they are asked ? It is enough 
for us to know that he does so grant them. It may, 
however, be suggested, that were he not immutable 



104 OUR HOLY HILL. 

he might not do it. Of one fact we are certain ; 
God is immutably the hearer and answerer of prayer. 

Is an inquiry made for the profitableness of prayer ? 

It is profitable to discipline ourselves into just that 
state of obedience to God's will which a prayerful 
state of mind implies. Both directly and indirectly 
do the Scriptures declare it our duty to be frequent 
suppliants at the throne of grace. Suppose we do 
not see exactly how the words of our mouth, while 
expressing the sincere desires of our hearts, stand 
connected with God's bestowmerfts of good. The 
Infinite Being to w T hom we pray, sees the how, and it 
will be very profitable for us to discipline ourselves 
into a state of meek subjection to the arrangements 
of his wisdom. What can be more important for us 
dwellers on this footstool of the Deity than to pos- 
sess and exhibit a spirit of quiet acquiescence in his 
will? 

Prayer to God is a reasonable service ; and is there 
not some profit in yielding to the healthful prompt- 
ings of one's rational nature ? It is not superstition 
that prompts the heathen to bow suppliantly at the 
altars of their divinities. They pray in vain, not 
because prayer is a vain exercise, but because their 
idols are vanity. Baal's prophets did not act irra- 
tionally in crying aloud to him ; for, on the supposition 
that he were the true God, they ought to have called 
till he should hear them. Their irrationality con- 
sisted in supposing him to be the true God. If a 
Supreme Being exist, it is reasonable that all his 
intelligent creatures should pay homage to him ; and 
prayer is one of the most appropriate exercises for 
dependent, sinful creatures, implied in genuine homage. 



THE PROFITABLENESS OF PRAYER. 105 

Nor is Conscience silent touching prayer. We 
have no hesitancy in affirming that every man's con- 
science bids him pray. Some persons intimate that 
they conscientiously decline praying, under all circum- 
stances. They affirm that they dare not bend their 
knees or open their lips in the presence of Jehovah. 
Such mistake in supposing Conscience to be their 
dictator. They are under the influence of him whose 
aim is to appease and annihilate devotional feeling. 
Were the dictates of conscience heeded, no one, 
dwelling arrftd Gospel institutions, would allow a day 
to pass without prayer to God. Shall we fear to 
pray to him who requires us to address him in prayer ? 
W T hy not rather be afraid to offend him by neglect- 
ing so obvious a duty? Is it of no advantage to 
secure the approbation of conscience ? It certainly 
has the power of pursuing you as with a whip of 
scorpions. It can torment you day and night. 
While unheeding its promptings, you may be prepar- 
ing to be tormented by it forever. You should pray 
for the purpose of making conscience your friend, if 
on no other account. 

That meek frame of mind which is essential to ac- 
ceptable prayer is a frame the most desirable possi- 
ble, and it is cultivated by prayer. No other mental 
exercise so brings the heart into sweet sympathy with 
God. The altar of devotion is an anvil, on which 
the heart's native hardness may be broken. Jehovah's 
throne of grace is a furnace, where the dross of sin 
may be melted and drawn off from the soul. Emi- 
nence in holiness is never attained without a great 
amount of prayer. Peace of mind, joy in sorrow, 
happiness in a world of wretchedness, heaven begun 



106 OTJR HOLT HILL. 

in the soul — these never exist where prayerfulness is 
not a predominant characteristic. 

There is as much profit in prayer as there is profit 
in feeling one's self upheld by the everlasting arms, 
and covered by the wing of Omnipotent good- 
ness. It is only by means of this key of prayer, that 
one opens unto himself the gate leading into the 
green pastures and the still waters provided by the 
great Shepherd for his flock. Were the influences of 
prayer limited to the subduing effect of the exercise 
upon him who prays, there would be*much good 
derived from frequent prostration of soul before God. 
It is good to get away often from the turmoils of the 
world, and to be shut up alone in the presence of 
Omniscience. The passions need frequent respites. 
How high rise the waves of angry emotions, and 
how turbidly do the waters of life's current usually 
flow. Ye men of business, hide yourselves once, 
twice, even thrice a day, in a closet consecrated to 
prayer, and converse therewith the Most High. You 
can do it. To plead a want of time is to plead 
falsely. Daniel, more pressed with cares than you 
need be, went three times a day into his chamber and 
prayed. Drawing near to him from whom all help 
cometh, hindereth not the onward movement of law- 
ful enterprise^ 

That gentleness, peacefulness of soul, which is cul- 
tivated by prayer, is not overabundant at the present 
day. It is a spiritual coin, which circulates but limit- 
edly in the market-places of earth. Most persons go 
about as if they were composed of stormy elements. 
Their rough speech betokens that their feelings are 
ruffled. A tornado about them often indicates a tor- 



THE PROFITABLENESS OF PRATER. 107 

nado within them. " He that is slow to anger is 
better than the mighty ; and he that ruleth his spirit 
than he that taketh a city." Where shall we look, 
amid life's more active scenes, for the placid counte- 
nance, that index of soul serenity and conscious 
fellowship with him who rules over the wrath of man, 
restraining it or causing it to redound to his infinite 
glory ? 

Prayer opens the eyes to see God in all the opera- 
tions of nature. The inspired writers are not fanciful 
or superstitious, when they speak of God as being 
present in the storm. The thunder is his voice ; the 
winds do obey him; not a sparrow falls to the ground 
without his notice and agency. Nature is not God. 
Pantheism is a doctrine unworthy even of a pagan 
mind ; but God presides over the works of his hands ; 
his providence is universal ; it is also particular. 

Who that lives amid the multiplied specimens of 
heavenly art arranged N in this great exhibition gallery 
of God, should be willing to walk about blindfolded ? 
Yet how much better in respect to moral sight are 
prayerless persons ? They see not the great Architect. 

Loss and gain, profit and no profit ! We should 
think, judging from the converse and conduct of 
some men, that many of earth's millions are depend- 
ent wholly and absolutely upon them for subsistence. 
They neglect prayer; leave the Bible unread, and 
trample upon the Sabbath, in order, as they say, to 
furnish employment to those who look to them for 
support. But has not Christ commanded us each 
to pray daily for food to nourish us daily ? It is pre- 
sumptuous for any' class in society to regard them- 
selves as the only sustainers of human life. 



108 OUR HOLY HILL. 

We suggest to these men of an exorbitant self-esti- 
mate to give themselves to prayer. It will do them 
good frequently to lie prostrate in the dust before 
God. They need to come into contact with the 
great facts pertaining to providential dispensations. 
In humble supplications before their Maker, they 
may learn, that, while there is much profit to them- 
selves in prayer, they are not profitable unto God. 
How much good it would do society, if such persons 
could learn their nothingness as compared with their 
Maker. We bless our Father in heaven for the 
talent, the enterprise, and the wealth on this his foot- 
stool ; yet we would that men everywhere might see 
that temporal benedictions flow from him who 
heareth prayer; and that all persons should look 
upward even to the white throne for every good. 



SAINTS PRAY. 

Prayer is one of the distinguishing characteristics of 
saints on earth. They pray to God, not to other 
saints in heaven, not to angels there, whether sera- 
phim or cherubim. They pray only to God, the 
God of the Bible, the one God in three persons, 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — for such a Being is 
the God of the Bible — and to such a God do the 
saints on earth pray. 

Saints pray much — pray " always — with all 
prayer." They pray in their hearts without moving 



SAIXTS PRAY. 109 

their lips ; pray also uttering the emotions of their 
hearts. They pray when alone — in their closets, 
where, amid the solemnities of a silence broken only 
by the suppliant's voice, the Ancient of days seems 
specially present. Secret sins the saints bewail when 
no ear but the Eternal's can hear ; private griefs are 
poured out before him who pities like a father and 
helps like a God. Saints pray in the presence of 
other persons ; pray audibly or not audibly, just as 
duty demands. The sight of a saint's eye often 
affects his heart ; and everywhere he is moved by what 
he sees of an affecting nature to call upon Heaven to 
be merciful to earth. 

Saints pray in the morning ; they pray at noon ; 
they pray at night. They pray at home, and when 
away from home. They pray in the house, and by 
the way ; in the shop, and in the field. It is true of 
them that at all times, in all places and amid all cir- 
cumstances, they are characterized by a prayerful- 
ness which is not like a garment put on and off 
at pleasure, but which is a part of the new creation 
that constitutes them saints. They are no saints, 
whose vital breath is not very much spent in prayer. 

Saints should pray for the Holy Spirit. Now, as 
anciently, when God looks down from heaven upon 
the children of men to see if there are any that 
understand and seek him, he sees them all gone 
aside ; " they are altogether become filthy ; there is 
none that doeth good ; no, not one." If the Spirit of 
the Lord do not come with resurrection power, those 
now dead in sin will remain dead in sin, and be 
buried in the lake of fire. 

Shall time be spent in telling dead sinners what 
10 



110 OUR HOLY HILL. 

they can do ? Shall the saints waste their breath over 
the worldliness of the world? Does not God bid his 
people plead with Him for the Spirit ? When they 
so plead are not their prayers as incense before him ? 
Sinners are dead in sin ; they are laid out in sin ; 
they are coffined in sin ; and the hearse of hell is ap- 
proaching to bear them away to the sepulchres of the 
damned. Shall they all be borne away ? Shall not 
the quickening power of the Spirit summon up to 
life some of them ? Pause ! ye undertakers of 
Satan ! Halt ! ye hearse-wheels of hell ! Spirit of 
the Lord, Spirit of the Lord! descend and rend these 
coffins of sin ; remove these grave-clothes ; breathe 
life eternal into these cold corpses ; bid them stand 
up ; make them saints of God ; elect, precious. 



SPIRITUAL SLOTH. 

Professing Christians occupy positions of great 
responsibility. They have proclaimed to the world 
their purpose to be wholly devoted to the kingdom of 
Christ ; and they can neither revoke their avowal, nor 
cast aside its implied demands. Lights of the world 
they must be, or prove themselves in danger of being 
"cast into outer darkness." If not the salt of the 
earth, then, of what moral value are they ? To be re- 
ligiously inactive is not difficult. Slumberers in the 
vineyard are not unfrequently seen by the Master's 
eye, as lie surveys his earthly heritage. Has this fact, 



SPIRITUAL SLOTH. Ill 

discouraging to those toiling for the extension as 
well as the peace of Zion, an apology ? Is there a 
valid reason for spiritual sloth in any case whatever ? 
Are some of those, enrolled as disciples of Jesus, 
physically incapacitated to exert, themselves for the 
promotion of piety in their own hearts, and among 
their brethren ? The question is not, whether they 
can perform services, which imply miraculous endow- 
ments of the body ; it is not, whether at any time 
sickness enfeebles them ; but whether, in general, they 
cannot do something? Have they not bones and 
sinews sufficient to exert themselves, to some extent, 
for the most worthy of objects ? To whom little abil- 
ity has been imparted, of them only small efforts are 
required. Is it not a fact, that many nominal Chris- 
tians plead physical incapacity in excuse for neglect, 
when they are reminded of duties assigned them by 
the Saviour, but who are physically strong enough at 
other times ? Are they justified ? Shall the church 
regard a portion of her members, who are powerful in 
manual labor, and unrestrained in the indulgence of 
appetite, such invalids as not to expect aught of them 
toward the advancement of religion ? Does the Cap- 
tain of salvation, when bidding the sacramental 
host go forward, give license to persons of this class 
to remain stationary ? Surely not! Sluggishness in 
the warfare with sin is not atoned for by such pro- 
testations, coming from any class, touching physical 
inability. It is not possible that men should have 
strength sufficient for all the toils of temporal affairs, 
and at the same time be utterly destitute of ability to 
attend a prayer-meeting, or to appear in the sane- 



112 



OUR HOLY HILL. 



tuary on the Sabbath. An attempt to excuse neg- 
lected duties after this manner is but adding false- 
hood to the sin of indolence. " Even the youths 
shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall 
utterly fall ; but they that wait upon the Lord shall 
renew their strength ; they shall mount up with 
wings, as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary, 
and they shall walk and not faint." 

What say the intellectual faculties of professing 
Christians, in respect to religious inertness ? Are 
splendid mental talents required, in order to serve 
faithfully the meek and lowly Jesus ? Is the privi- 
lege of being followers of him confined to a few of 
unusual mental brilliancy ? Persons of humble in- 
tellects may become the greater lights in the moral 
world. It is preeminent piety which renders the 
child of God illustrious. Holiness makes the mind 
luminous, even in time. To those who have profess- 
edly entered Christ's fold, and who urge mental im- 
becility as the reason for their doing nothing in honor 
of their Lord, the question should present itself, how 
did they enter the church ? If they possessed mind 
sufficient to repent of sin, and believe in the Saviour, 
why does not the same capacity qualify them to 
adorn their profession ? Daily obedience to the Son 
of God is of the same nature with conversion. We 
are not commanded to serve God with angelic capac- 
ities. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
mind." How quickly would the religiously slothful 
resent the intimation, were it made, that they are in- 
ferior to others in mental endowments. It is to be 



SPIRITUAL SLOTH. 113 

presumed that they do not mean what they affirm, 
when uttering diminutive expressions respecting 
themselves. 

Haters of holiness have sometimes raised their cry 
against religious excitements, because of their sup- 
posed tendency to unbalance the mind. Insanity is 
thought to result from great anxiety respecting sal- 
vation. Whatever evil may have incidentally result- 
ed from indiscreet management in religious matters, 
it is certain that slothfulness in spiritual interests can 
never be excused, because some enemy of piety may 
have made an exhibition of evil consequences which 
have occurred in certain cases. Religious exer- 
cises are, when duly conducted, most healthful, both 
to the intellect and to the physical constitution of 
man. Some of the greatest men that have, from 
time to time, adorned the scientific and literary 
world, have been sprkikled with the blood of atone- 
ment, and proved themselves active Christians, devout 
in the service of him to whose mercy they had com- 
mitted their eternal welfare. Nor have any of this 
class supposed that their mental excellence ever suf- 
fered by serving the Lord. What a growth of intel- 
lect there would be among all classes of Christians, 
were they to be duly zealous in the cause of their 
Master. Sorrowful inconsistency ! Hundreds, who 
are, by profession, preparing to be intensely and eter- 
nally active in heaven, are now afraid to exert their 
minds religiously, lest its regulator may be thrown 
out of its place. Or, if such be not their plea, they 
yet remain so indolent, that it would seem they dare 
not make efforts. 

What is the testimony of man's moral nature ? 
10* 



114 OUR HOLY HILL. 

Does it summon him to desist from measures for its 
purification ? Will a dreamy attention to its endless 
well-being more than satisfy it? " They are contin- 
ually throwing contempt on their own nature, that 
live unconcerned about their future eternal salva- 
tion." Sluggishness in religion is suicidal. Often 
that little more sleep, coveted by indolent professors, 
presages for them the second death and the darkness 
of hell. 

Most explicit are the declarations of many individ- 
uals, who, having dealt carelessly with their souls in 
life, have been aroused to a sense of their guilt, on 
the approach of their dissolution. A dying king 
>once exclaimed : " Ah ! how happy should I have 
been, had I spent in retirement those twenty years 
during which I have held my kingdom. My concern 
is not for my body, but for my soul." One, of high 
station, said : " Had I been as diligent in serving my 
God as I have been in serving my king, he would 
not have forsaken me now in my gray hairs." A 
secretary to queen Elizabeth left on record this judi- 
cious observation : " It is a great pity that men know 
not to what end they are living in the world, till they 
are on the point of going out of it." An eminent di- 
vine observed : "I repent of all my life but that part 
which I spent in communion with God, and in doing 
good." 

How does the church feel in regard to the fidelity 
of her children ? Is she unconcerned in respect to 
their possession, or their lack, of zeal ? When they 
do nothing to promote her honor, is it as satisfactory 
to her as if they were every way faithful? Does 
the church ever utter the lulling words, " Yet a 



SPIRITUAL SLOTH. 115 

little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the 
hands to sleep," as her deliberate advice ? On the 
contrary, is she not filled with grief, and covered with 
sackcloth, when those embraced in her bosom per- 
form not the service allotted them by the King of 
Zion ? Is it not then that " her tears are on her 
cheeks ? " No careful search is requisite to ascertain 
the will of the church. Her constitution and ordi- 
nances, also the position assigned her by him who 
gave her existence, show what are her demands. Oh, 
the reproach occasioned to the church by slothful- 
ness in her members ! " All her gates are desolate ; 
her priests sigh ; her virgins are afflicted, and she is 
in bitterness." 

Never did Zion speak a comforting word to an 
individual enjoying Christian privileges, but not per- 
forming solemn obligations. Wakefulness and prayer- 
ful diligence are always required of those dwelling in 
the holy city. Sloth gives rise to the sad lamentation : 
" How is the gold become dim ; how is the most 
fine gold changed ; the stoites of the sanctuary are 
poured out in the top of every street. The precious 
sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they 
esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands 
of the potter." 

Does not the relation of church-membership imply 
that Christians should proclaim to the sinner his 
danger ? Are not the chosen people of the Lord ap- 
pointed to sound an alarm in the ear of the care- 
less ? Ought not such recklessness as marks the path 
of the ungodly to arouse every energy of the be- 
liever ? Quickly will many of the impenitent pass 
from the hearing of gospel offers : " Surely thou didst 



116 OUR nOLY HILL. 

set them in slippery places, thou castedst them down 
into destruction." While a sinner, unforgiven, re- 
mains on prdbation, should the servants of Jehovah 
refrain from pouring their supplicating cries into the 
ear of infinite compassion ? Do the disciples of 
Jesus, if slothful, consider among whom they dwell ? 
Can they be sensible of the extreme wickedness 
which exists in all the places of their residence ? 
Have they listened to the terrific oaths that are daily 
uttered by persons of every age, from the little child 
upward? Sabbath profanation is not yet anywhere 
at an end. Intemperance still has its numerous vic- 
tims. Darkness, which conceals from human view 
the haunts of the vile, cannot render iniquity harm- 
less. Whither are bound the majority of account- 
able beings who walk the streets trodden by Chris- 
tians, and who are engaged in the same daily pur- 
suits ? Alas ! while church-members slumber, sinners 
are rushing on to destruction. Arise, ye servants of 
the Lord, and strive to deliver from the wrath to come 
your families, and other friends ; your associates, too, 
in business. Yea, let past indifference to the danger 
of the impenitent excite the deepest solicitude lest 
your own souls be, even now, in spiritual bondage. 
Why deem yourselves delivered from slavery, if the 
captivity of others excite in you no alarm ? Church- 
membership saves no person. 

How do the Scriptures uniformly treat spiritual 
sloth ? Are encouragements for its indulgence found 
anywhere on the pages of inspiration ? Of whom 
is it said, that he shall be like a tree planted by the 
rivers of water, bringing forth fruit in its season? 
Surely nothing of this nature is affirmed of unfaith- 



SPIRITUAL SLOTH. 117 

ful professors of religion. They are more like the 
tree on whose branches Jesus looked for figs, and 
found nothing but leaves. The word of God asserts, 
that slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep. Man's 
soul is treated in the sacred volume as of infinitely 
more value than is his body ; and he that does not 
watch constantly, we are taught, is in danger of fall- 
ing a victim to temptation. The Son of Man 
cometh as a thief in the night ; and how startling 
must be his advent to those called his disciples, who 
give no other proof of being his, than turning " in 
their profession like a door on the hinges." Jehovah 
commands, that whatsoever the hand findeth to do it 
be performed with the utmost energy, and he directs 
that every tithe be brought into his storehouse. A 
message from his throne runs thus : " Fight the good 
fight of faith." We are assured that salvation must 
be worked out with vfear and trembling, and that all 
diligence must be given for the acquisition of the 
Christian graces. Read more carefully the book 
of the Lord, thou dull and dreamy Christian ! See 
what the finger of him whom thou callest thy God 
has written against thee, — not one word of com- 
fort has he recorded for the consolation of thy slug- 
gish spirit! 

What says the example of Christ on the topic 
before us ? " Wist ye not that I must be about my 
father's business," was his youthful apology for re- 
maining in Jerusalem when his parents were on their 
return to Nazareth. Christ's public ministry was in- 
cessantly toilsome. " I must work the works of him 
that sent me, while it is day." How many miles he 
travelled on foot to visit the afflicted, instruct the 



118 OUR HOLY HILL. 

ignorant, and publish deliverance to the captives of 
sin. An apostle has intimated, that, if a full record 
were made of all which Jesus accomplished, " even 
the world itself could not contain the books that 
should be written." Call this an oriental figure, if 
you please, but remember it is inspired, and rests on a 
fact most instructive. Short was the period of the 
Saviour's dwelling among men as their teacher ; but 
his zeal produced immense results. What disciple is 
not required to take him for an ensample ? No one 
can do in all respects what he did ; still each should 
as much as possible copy his course. 

While affording us an example of energy, Christ 
expressed himself in words with reference to zeal in 
his disciples. Terrible is the sentence which he 
passes upon those who do not improve their talents. , 
" Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." The 
kingdom of heaven is to be sought first, chiefly, and 
continuously. A crown of life is promised only to 
such as are faithful unto death. Whoever consults 
chiefly, self-indulgence, has no claim to be reckoned 
among the favorites of the Messiah. Daily crosses 
must be borne, in order to win the exalted title of 
disciple. Promises of fidelity are useless, if not car- 
ried out in obedience. Publishing before earth and 
heaven adherence to the Son of God is a vain show, 
if a practical exhibition of honorable service for him 
be wanting. In the gospel economy, men's assertions 
weigh less than vanity, when deeds divinely demanded 
are not performed. " A certain man had two sons ; 
and he came to the first and said, son, go work to-day 
in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not ; 



SPIRITUAL SLOTH. 119 

but afterwards repented and went. And he came to 
the second and said likewise. And he answered 
and said, I go, sir, and went not. Whether of them 
twain did the will of his father ? " Such was an 
illustration employed by Jesus to convince boastful 
Pharisees of the worthlessness of their religious pro- 
fession ; and when, in answering his question, they 
had condemned themselves, he added : " Verily 1 say 
unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into 
the kingdom of God before you." 

Lift thine eyes, Christian, towards the heavenly 
hills. What intimations respecting sloth in religion 
come from that world ? There is rest ; an abode of 
perpetual freedom from the toils and anxieties of 
earth ; but are any of the inhabitants of the New 
Jerusalem inactive ? Is indolence a characteristic of 
a single saint or angel there ? Without interruption 
the praises of Jehovah are sung ; and all the other 
services of that temple not made with hands are car- 
ried forward without ceasing. Of the worshippers 
there it is said : " They rest not day and night, say- 
ing, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." It is 
the Christian's duty to prepare for the privileges and 
employments of the celestial city ; but this he can 
never do by stupidness. What probability, nay, what 
possibility, is there of his reaching the Zion above, 
who is a mere incumbrance in that on earth ? Slug- 
gards must be held in everlasting abhorrence by all 
the dwellers at the right hand of God. There can 
be no hiding-place for them within the wide circuit 
of heaven's holy territory. 

Turn, also, thine eye, thou slothful servant, towards 
the dark realms of despair. With a supposed title to 



120 OUR HOLY HILL. 

" an inheritance among all them which are sanctified," 
a cell may be in readiness for thee where hypocrites, 
and every variety of the wicked, are imprisoned. 
" The wise shall inherit glory ; but shame shall be 
the promotion of fools." Can one afford less evi- 
dence of being genuinely wise, and clearer indica- 
tions of being extremely foolish, than by the allowing 
of his own life's lamp to be consumed without his 
striving to enter the kingdom ? Five of the ten vir- 
gins who went forth to meet the bridegroom were 
refused admittance to the marriage supper. Judas 
professed to believe in Christ. It must be conceded 
that vast numbers who have eaten and drank in the 
name of Christ are destined to meet an awful frown, 
instead of a smile, on the countenance of him before 
whom all nations shall be gathered. 



THE NAME JESUS. 

Many titles are in the Scriptures appropriated to 
him who came as the world's Redeemer. He is 
called Messiah, Immanuel, Mediator, Lord, Redeem- 
er, Jesus, Saviour, King, Teacher, Master, Shepherd, 
etc., all of which titles are fragrant with the perfume 
of the celestial realm whence they came. God has 
often sent appellations from heaven to be used on 
earth. Christ's forerunner was named by an angel. 
It was said to the father before the child was born, 
" Thou shalt call his name John." The designation 



THE NAME JESUS. 121 

Jesus was assigned to the miraculous son of Mary, 
before his birth. A reason was also given why he 
should be so called : " For he shall save his people 
from their sins." God ever acts in accordance with 
perfect reason, though he does not always assign 
to mortals the reason why he pursues a particular 
course. 

The name Jesus is used as a distinct appellation 
of the Messiah more than one hundred and twenty 
times in the New Testament, besides being associ- 
ated variously with other titles. Three times the 
term is employed to designate mere men ; Joshua is 
so called twice ; and one individual, living at the 
period of the apostles, is thus named. The word 
Joshua in Hebrew becomes Jesus in Greek. He who 
conducted Israel into Canaan was a type of Christ. 
So may have been that Joshua who was the high- 
priest when the Jews N returned from Babylon to Pal- 
estine. It is pleasant to reflect that the Son of God, 
in assuming human nature, was designated similarly 
to other persons, — had a name assigned to him 
which was highly significant, yet one easily spoken, 
easily interpreted. Still this name, which, of all hon- 
orable ones borne by him, seems perhaps the least in- 
dicative of his greatness, may be the most honorable. 
We are told, that at the name of Jesus every knee 
shall bow ; that every rational creature in the uni- 
verse shall pay homage to him known as Jesus the 
Saviour. 

" For he shall save his people from their sins." This 
is the reason assigned by Gabriel why the name 
Jesus should be given to the Messiah. The very ap- 

11 



122 OUR HOLY HILL. 

pellation by which he would be most familiarly 
known was to be a symbol of his commission. 

Who are the people thus to be saved? Not the 
Jews in particular, though in a special sense they had 
been his people. But when he came unto them as to 
his own, they received him not. They are his people 
who receive him as their Redeemer and Lord ; who, 
being penitent for sin, believe in him as the true, the 
only Saviour. Repentance, however sincere, deep, 
and evangelical, delivers no one from the desert of 
sin ; and faith, saving faith, does not secure deliver- 
ance from sin because of any efficacy in its own ab- 
stract nature. Faith saves by securing the gracious 
interposition of him whose name is Jesus. Salvation, 
in all its elements, is of divine origin ; and it is none 
the less divine in every degree of its application. 
Through Christ comes conviction of sin, regeneration 
by the Holy Ghost, and the faith that saves, by unit- 
ing the soul to him as its Saviour. 

Christ saves his people from the present dominion of 
sin, which, like a tyrant despot tyrannizes over all the 
ungodly. They who receive him are set at liberty from 
this terrible supremacy. Christ breaks their chains, and 
bids the freed walk at large. He has proclaimed it to 
the world that there is no condemnation to such as 
are his people. True, they are not wholly disentangled 
from the influences of sin, for the god of this world 
lives and assails variously the Lord's elect, but he 
cannot enslave them. Christ is their guardian. So 
long as believers are kept in time, they are subject to 
trials. They are not, however, the vassals of sin, 
though they are sufferers continually in consequence 
of it. 



THE NAME JESUS. 123 

Christ saves his people from the present desert. of 
sin. No contrition, no exercise of faith, can atone 
for past transgression. God's Laiv demands the 
eternal death of all who have not kept it. Perfect 
obedience now does not annihilate previous non-obe- 
dience. But Christ saves his people from this de- 
mand, being himself " the end of the law for right- 
eousness to every one that believeth." 

Christ saves his people with an eternal salvation ; 
and it is this fact which gives so vast an import to 
the name Jesus. What, compared with this, is being 
freed simply from present condemnation, or from 
the immediate desert of sin ? Time, in all its years 
and ages, is as nothing to eternity. It was for the 
effecting of the eternal salvation of his people, that 
Christ entered upon his mediatorial enterprise. Sin- 
ners are under sentence of everlasting banishment 
from all that is good^into misery endless. None, who 
go to Jesus as he requires sinners to approach him, 
are rejected by him ; nor does he allow them to be 
plucked out of his hands, after he has once received 
them. In definite and strong terms does he thus 
speak : " All that the Father giveth me shall come to 
me ; and him that cometh to me I will in nowise 
cast out ; for I came down from heaven, not to do 
mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, 
that, of all which he hath given me I should lose 
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." 
Having declared himself to be the living bread which 
came down from heaven, Christ affirms that if any 
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. The par- 



124 OUR HOLY HILL. 

taking of it is a spiritual act ; it is a receiving of the 
Son of God by faith as the Redeemer. 

We need not here dwell at length on the fact, that 
it is simply by means of Christ's atoning death that 
his people are saved. Without having sacrificed him- 
self for the sins of the world, his name could import no 
more than does Joshua's. The example of Jesus saves 
none. His appropriate and sublime teachings are 
indeed generally applauded ; yet they are really heed- 
ed by those only who are sprinkled with his blood. 
-Christ secured life eternal for his people when he 
endured for them the curse of the law. As he hung 
upon the cross, he bore their sins in his own body. 
His people rest their hope of eternal salvation solely 
on what their Saviour suffered for them. It is only 
as they find evidence of thus resting upon him, that 
they have reason to consider themselves in a state 
of spiritual safety. 

Christ never ceases promoting the sanctification of 
such as are of his true fold. As a good shepherd he 
watches over them, going before them into all places 
whither it is lawful for them to go. None of them 
are removed from the scenes of earth till they are 
fitted for the employments of heaven; and each is 
taken thither so soon as fully prepared. The means 
of their removal he assigns. Diseases are all the 
servants of Immanuel, who orders them forth or holds 
them under restraint. Sin brought them into the 
world ; but he reigns over them, using them as judg- 
ments or as mercies, in the furtherance of his own 
righteous and glorious reign. 

To an individual who has felt the bitterness of sin 



THE NAME JESUS. 125 

as it poisons his own soul, and who has also expe- 
rienced the happiness of the forgiven, the name Jesus 
must be indescribably precious. Salvation from sin's 
dominion and desert is what he needed, and what he 
has obtained. From lips speaking with infinite au- 
thority, he has heard his own liberty proclaimed, 
" Be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee." 

" Ok, what immortal joys I felt, 
And raptures all divine, 
When Jesus told me I was his, 
And my beloved mine." 

Surely believers in the Son of God can delight in 
none of his many titles more than in the one an- 
nounced by Gabriel: " Thoushalt call his name Jesus." 
God might be with us as the term Immanuel imports, 
and his presence inspire only terror. He walked 
among the trees of Eden, yet man sought conceal- 
ment from his inspection. Transgressors have rea- 
son to be troubled when they recognize the Almighty 
as near. The title Messiah, or Christ, signifies the 
Anointed. The Messiah is the Lord's Anointed. But 
such a personage might be commissioned to execute 
only judgments on offenders. Indeed, there are terrific 
announcements in connection with this very name. 
In the Hebrew of the second Psalm the appellation 
Messiah occurs ; yet most fearful are the declarations 
recorded in connection with it. He who bears this 
designation is to break his enemies with a rod of iron, 
and to dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel. 

The idea of deliverance from sin is the one pre- 
eminently expressed in the name Jesus ; therefore, as 
already suggested, it must be peculiarly dear to be- 
ll * 



126 OUR HOLY HILL. 

lievers. " Precious Lord Jesus ! I would say, Oh 
give thy people grace to see thee and know thee in 
this most blessed name, and never to hear it, or call 
upon thee by it, without connecting with it the 
angel's words." If we lose sight of the import of 
this name, we forget our ruin, and the greatness of 
our rescue. In connection with deliverance from sin 
is the essential disciplinary course instituted and car- 
ried forward by Christ. We must remember him as 
Jesus, in order to bear with patience the trials which 
are the fire of his furnace, in which our purification is 
to be in part at least effected. 

u How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 
In a believer's ear ; 
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, 
And drives away his fear." 

It is not to be supposed that in heaven this name 
will be less suggestive or delightful than it now is. 
Saints can never forget from what they were saved, 
nor the personage by whom their ransom was paid, 
and their exaltation to glory secured. 

" Jesus' harmonious name, 
It charms the hosts above ; 
They evermore proclaim 

And wonder at his love. 
'T is all their happiness to gaze, 
'T is heaven to see our Jesus' face." 



ANATHEMA. 127 



ANATHEMA. 



What single verse of the Bible contains more that 
is suited to awaken anxious inquiry, than is the fol- 
lowing : " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, 
let him be anathema ; maranatha." 

The original word, here rendered any man, is the 
same which is found in Christ's address to Nicode- 
mus : " Except a man be born again, he cannot see 
the kingdom of God ; " and it is the most comprehen- 
sive possible. By anathema is meant what is devoted 
to destruction ; an accursed thing or person. Ap- 
plied to the latter, it denotes one excluded from the 
favor of God, and delivered over to perpetual despair. 
Maranatha is a " Syro-Chaldee expression signifying 
' the Lord is to come, that is, will come to take ven- 
geance on the disobedient and vicious.' " 

What constitutes a person, anathema ? By doing, 
or by not doing what, will an accountable being on 
earth become accursed — devoted to destruction ? 
The passage of Scripture, already quoted, informs us. 
" If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ" he is 
anathema. It is not, then, necessary that an individ- 
ual should be extravaganlly wicked in the estima- 
tion of the world, in order to be accursed. Not a 
single outward act of transgression is requisite to 
render one anathema. He may be such while 
regarded as a model of politeness in the fashionable 
world. A person can be adorned with the highest 
intellectual gifts and acquirements, yet be anathema. 
Simply a lack of love to Christ subjects one to 



128 OUR HOLY HILL. 

this dire condemnation. This is what the Holy Ghost 
affirms ; and has he said aught anywhere which de- 
mands more serious attention ? They are anathema 
who do not love the Lord Jesus Christ. Who have 
not such love ? Are instances rare or of frequent oc- 
currence, in which it is wanting ? Would it be diffi- 
cult to find an individual, whether young or old, who 
is anathema, because he loves not Christ ? Is it prob- 
able that ten of such could be found in any com- 
munity of a thousand souls? The Lord Jesus 
Christ! He is altogether lovely; the beloved of the 
Father ; the compassionate friend of sinners ; the 
world's Saviour. Who can read the holy records of 
his coming and doing and suffering, w T ithout loving 
him ? Does not every knee, where Jesus is known, 
bend in adoration of him ? Can there be a heart 
which does not glow with pure and enrapturing 
delight in him ? If any man do not feel thus toward 
him, how must the delinquent's rational powers all 
cry out against him ! Surely reason commands the 
heart to love God's Son sincerely and supremely. 
What is the actual state of the case ? How do most 
persons stand affected toward the Saviour? Is he 
enthroned within them ? In the presence of Him 
who searches the heart, what, reader, is thy response ? 
Dost thou love the Lord Jesus Christ ? Art thou an 
anathema, or not ? By thy fruits, thou mayest know 
thyself. Is the will of Jesus thy law of life ? Canst 
thou, for his sake, part with a foot, a hand, or an eye? 
Wouldst thou burn at the stake, rather than forsake 
this holy Master ? Art thou hated of the world, be- 
cause thou belongest as a disciple unto him ? "If 
ye were of the world the world would love his own : 



THE lord's table. 129 

but because ye are not of the world, but I have 
chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hat- 
eth you." 



THE LORD'S TABLE. 

In most of the edifices, where God is regularly wor- 
shipped, may be seen a table. Its position is fre- 
quently between the preacher and the nearest hearers 
in front of him. Often there stands not far from it 
a baptismal font. This table is used on various oc- 
casions, but is specially devoted to a particular pur- 
pose — the sacramental observance. "When thus 
employed, it has its own appropriate furniture, and is 
supplied with provisions set apart from a common to 
a sacred use. Usually, in the temples of prayer, this 
table is furnished at regularly recurring seasons. In 
some of the holy courts, the appointed time is the 
first Sabbath in every month ; in others, two months 
intervene between the stated seasons ; in others, still 
longer periods. On these solemn occasions, when 
this table is spread with its furniture and food, it is 
called the hordes Table. Why is it thus designated ? 

Because he specially appointed it. We say spe- 
cially, to distinguish this from other tables, all of 
which are in a sense his, and are daily prepared by 
his direction. The ancient Tabernacle had a table, 
the pattern of which was shown to Moses in the 
mount. That, like all the other articles associated 
with it, was richly ornamented. It was overlaid with 



130 OUR HOLY HILL. 

pure gold, and had a " crown of gold round about." 
In its four corners were four rings of gold, by means 
of which it might be removed from place to place. 
The very staves by which it was carried, were over- 
laid with gold. Not so ornamented are the tables in 
the tabernacles which we rear for the honor of the 
Most High. No pattern, by which they must be made, 
was left us by our Lord and Master. Not a hint of 
this kind is to be found in all he communicated on 
the subject of sacramental observances. 

The first economy was precise in its outward ar- 
rangements, though it did not overlook the heart of 
the worshippers. Indeed, its very precision — its ap- 
pointment of pure gold, pure oil, and its demand for 
sacrifices without a blemish, symbolized the spotless- 
ness of God's holiness, and also the holiness of heart 
which he requires of man. The Levitical service 
was magnificent in its exterior ; but it was not so 
merely to make a demonstration of gorgeousness. 
God was not ambitious to impress the world with the 
grandeur of his worship. His heavens daily display 
more that is suited to attract the gaze of mankind, 
and to fill them with adoring wonder, than did all the 
gold, the embroidery, the systematic burning of in- 
cense, and the sacrificial rites, of the Jewish economy. 
" Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts," was the im- 
port of every part of that service. The lofty One 
spake by it to all engaged in it, saying, " Be ye holy, 
for I am holy." 

Christ, having come in the flesh, excludes from the 
essentials of the worship now required whatever is 
excessively costly or showy. Jerusalem's temple he 
delivered up to destroyers, and not a sacred relic did 



THE LORD'S TABLE. 131 

he extricate from its ruins. Those priestly robes were 
all consumed. Rome is fond of relics, — seemingly 
values more the wood of the cross than the Redeem- 
er crucified thereon. Jesus sent his ministers into 
the world to preach and to pray ; to be as noiseless 
in their labors as the nature of the case will admit. 
He requires that a table be provided for him ; but it 
may be constructed of the most economical materi- 
als. It is not to be overlaid with gold ; it is to have 
no border of gold; no rings of gold. Its furniture 
may be as the judgment and ability of the providers 
shall deem best to supply. 

Our sanctuary table is called the Lord's, because 
he specially visits it. We ought to be able to feel 
daily, when sitting at our repasts, that Christ is not 
far from us. He commands, that whether we eat or 
drink, we should do all for his glory. If with folded 
hands and closed eyes we supplicate his presence, 
may we not believe that his benediction shall attend 
our oft-repeated reception of food ? Jesus loves the 
habitations of his friends not less now than when he 
ate and drank in Bethany. Were the kind Saviour 
always invited with due sincerity and fervor to be- 
come a guest with us sinners, as we draw near to the 
nourishing bounties of his hand, what is designed for 
our nutriment might not so frequently prove to us an 
injury. Alas, it is true, that if the Son of God ever 
visit most of the family tables of earth, he is at them 
as an uninvited guest! His presence is neither 
sought, desired, nor knowingly tolerated by the mem- 
bers of most households. Were Jesus now on earth 
in human form, going about and doing good, in only 



132 OUR HOLY HILL. 

a few habitations would he find a seat for him at the 
family board. 

The sanctuary table is spread in accordance with 
Christ's direction, and he comes to it by regular ap- 
pointment. True, his design in requiring it may be 
overlooked or perverted by those who prepare it, and 
therefore he may decline being present. He told 
some, in the days of his ministry, that they had 
converted God's house of prayer into a den of thieves. 

We remember with joy the opening of the sacra- 
mental era. Jesus himself sat at the table. He 
blessed the bread, brake it, and presented it to his 
disciples. He gave thanks, and distributed the wine. 
Yes ; on that occasion, so solemn in its nearness to 
the crucifixion scene, the holy Master was personally 
present. Natural eyes saw him ; natural ears heard 
him speak. Now he appears at his table, but it is to 
the eye of the soul. His disciples hear him saying, 
" Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O be- 
loved ; " but it is to the inner hearing, not to the out- 
ward ear, that he thus speaks. 

This is the table of the Lord, because it is a stand- 
ing token of his friendship for those who draw near 
to it in his name. Our now glorified Redeemer de- 
signed it to be a pledge of his tender and enduring 
interest in the members of his fold. It is one of the 
legacies that he bequeathed to them. What provis- 
ion in his last Will is more suited to benefit them ? 
He commands them to meet as frequently as their 
judgment may decide to be best, in order to partake 
of bread and wine in his name. Jesus is a friend. 
His affection is pure, strong, and permanent. Though 



133 



exalted at the right hand of the Father ; though in 
the midst of saints and angels ; though worshipped 
incessantly in the perfection characteristic of Heaven's 
temple, he is as regardful of each one on earth that 
loves him, as he was when John's head rested upon 
his bosom. 

This table is a memorial of Christ's death, there- 
fore it is said to be his. It was appointed in this 
respect, by way of anticipation. He had not actually 
died when he ordained its use. In the divine purpose, 
however, he was already crucified. The Paschal 
lamb, too, of which he had just partaken, was a type 
of himself. He died figuratively when that bled liter- 
ally. The bread and the wine of the passover were 
used at the institution of the holy supper. Jesus 
would have his own sacrificial exit on the cross held 
in the most impressive remembrance. The New 
Testament Scriptures abound with allusions to his- 
death as an expiation for human guilt. Indeed, if we 
extract the doctrine of an atoning Saviour from them, 
only mere shreds of their teachings remain. 

The Lord's table, spread and provisioned and at- 
tended, affords an emblem of heaven. We leave our 
separate abodes and gather at one table, common to 
all disciples. Family distinctions are, for the time, 
forgotten. Thus in heaven they feast together, being 
assembled out of all nations and families. At the 
Lord's table none are high, none are low, none are 
rich, none are poor; they who rightly sit there are one ; 
all are one. If any distinction exist there, in the mind 
of Jesus, as he estimates the assembly, the most hum- 
ble he most highly esteems. Those thinking the least 
of themselves receive his warmest affection. Heaven 

12 



134 OUR HOLY HILL. 

is annoyed with no jealousies, no ambitious soarings, 
no feelings of contempt. Distinctions known on 
earth as national and family are of no account in the 
kingdom of glory. Of one blood, God has made all 
people ; by one man's sin all were ruined, and by the 
atoning merits of one Mediator, life everlasting is 
made accessible to all. " One Lord, one faith, one 
baptism." Walls of partition may be reared by man 
in the kingdom of Christ, but he approves them not. 
It is natural to suppose that those who love Jesus 
feel a special attachment to his table. The simple 
fact that he appointed it must lead them to prize it. 
They cannot lightly esteem what he has ordained, 
knowing as they do his infallible wisdom. But he 
visits it ; is always a guest when it is prepared for his 
followers. Can one love Christ and not be strongly 
attached to the table at which he meets his friends ? 
Was not that upper room in Jerusalem dear to the 
disciples who there ate and drank with their Lord ? 
How does the sight of a habitation, in which we have 
formerly met affectionate kindred, or in which we are 
expecting soon to join them in mutual greetings, affect 
our hearts ! With what emotions do we contemplate 
the pledges of affection left us by those whom we 
loved, but who are removed from time ! We would 
not give up such pledges for thousands of golden 
coins, though stamped with the highest value. Christ 
has given us his own table as a pledge of his friend- 
ship. We cannot spurn it, if we love him. How can 
we suppose, for a moment, that this memorial of our 
Lord's death will be lightly esteemed by those who 
intelligently rest a hope of heaven on the merits of 
his atonement ? Further, how pleasant it must be for 



135 



the true disciple to have an emblem of heaven set 
before him from time to time ! Dark forms of sin 
show themselves in swarming numbers everywhere 
on earth. Often the spiritual children of God find 
themselves surrounded by bold workers of iniquity. 
Emblems of hell are numerous before the eyes of the 
very elect ; but Jesus presents them with an emblem 
of heaven — it is his table on a sacramental Sabbath. 
How animating to their vision must be such a scene ! 
It is more than a glimpse of the " Delectable Moun- 
tains;" it is a vision of the society within the veil, 
whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, 
made an high-priest forever after the order of Mel- 
chisedek. 

It is surely to be presumed that those who love Je- 
sus will allow no slight cause to hinder their visits to 
the table where their Master deigns to meet his 
friends. Doubtless one of the earliest developments 
of the renewed heart is a desire to join with believers 
in the commemorative supper. Their souls do not 
find rest till their faith in Christ has been openly pro- 
fessed, and they have kept the New Testament Pass- 
over. Having once sat at the holy table, their places 
will never fail to be occupied, except when God's 
providence so ordains. It is a sad indication of the 
lack of true piety, when communicants by profession 
appear not regularly at their Lord's table, unless for 
the reason just assigned. 

It may be further suggested, that those who love 
Jesus will carefully prepare themselves to meet him 
at his own table. Such an interview cannot be an- 
ticipated with too much prayerful desire that it may 
be sanctified. We do not feel willing to meet an 



136 OUR HOLY HILL. 

earthly visitor, for whom we entertain any respect, 
without first having an opportunity to prepare our- 
selves. Much meditation and supplication are requis- 
ite to bring the soul into a fit state to commune 
with Jesus at his table. To eat, "not discerning the 
Lord's body," incurs the condemnation of him who 
has ordained the table. Surely each disciple desires 
a smile, not a frown, from his Master. The humble 
believer does not wish to excite the suspicion in others, 
much less to feel within himself, that he is the be- 
trayer of innocent blood. He shudders at the thought 
of occasioning such a look from Jesus as rested on 
Peter. True disciples should attire themselves anew 
in the beauties of meekness, when about to appear at 
the table of their Lord. Holiness always becometh 
God's house, but well may that place seem thrice 
holy when the Gospel Passover is celebrated. 



JOY IN GOD, 



Good, very good, was every thing earthly, as origi- 
nally formed by the Creator ; and, though now lying 
beneath the curse which came in consequence of sin, 
terrestrial things are still perfectly adapted to an end 
worthy of the Being who caused them to exist. Re- 
ligion does not require its possessor to renounce the 
lawful pursuits of men, but to be diligent in business, 
as well as fervent in spirit ; yet every duty must be so 
managed that God shall be served in it. Jehovah 



JOY IN GOD. 137 

interdicts nothing to his people, which would, on the 
whole, if permitted, promote their good. 

"Beware all joys, but joys that never can expire; 
Who builds on less than an immortal base, 
Fond as he seems, condemns his joys to death." 

Saints are required to rejoice in the Lord. "Be 
glad in the Lord, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all 
ye that are upright in heart." — " Let the righteous 
be glad, let them rejoice before God ; yea, let them 
exceedingly, rejoice." — " Let the children of Zion be 
joyful in their King." — " Rejoice in the Lord alway, 
and again I say, rejoice." These passages, and many 
more which might be adduced, call upon the pious to 
be joyful in God. But joy is an emotion, and can- 
not be called into existence by a mere volition. 
Yet plainly every believer has in his own heart the 
foundation of a rejoieing in God. Joy arises from 
the contemplation of pleasing themes and objects ; 
hence Christians, in order to rejoice in the Lord, must 
meditate much upon his perfections and works. 

His perfections, or what he is in himself. He is 
self-existent and independent ; without beginning, is 
everlasting and complete in himself. No intelligent 
Christian can fail to see occasion of rejoicing in this 
fact. Let the power of his God be contemplated by 
the believer. This attribute is denominated omnipo- 
tence. True, such ability, if possessed by an unholy 
agent, would be terrific ; but, as under the control of 
infinite goodness, it may well excite unspeakable joy. 
What needs to be done, God is able to execute. His 
word is law — when he speaks, the object must be 
effected. " Behold, the nations are as a drop of a 

12* 



138 OUR HOLY HILL. 

bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the 
balance ; behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little 
thing." — " All nations before him are as nothing ; 
and they are counted to him less than nothing, and 
vanity." 

The omniscience and omnipresence of God may 
reasonably occasion joy to the Christian. To elude 
his knowledge, or escape from his presence, is impos- 
sible. However aggravating such a consideration 
may be to the rebellious, the humble cannot be other- 
wise than pleased that their God possesses these attri- 
butes. They love to recognize him as near at all 
times, and as knowing all things. Such behold him, 
not as an incensed sovereign, but as a tender parent 
not as ruling with merciless tyranny, but according to 
the principles of eternal right and benevolence. The 
enemies of the Lord would, doubtless, were they able 
to do it, deprive him of his omnipotence, annihilate 
his ubiquity, and narrow down his knowledge to the 
greatest ignorance. Christians may with rapture ex- 
claim : " The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of 
Jacob is our refuge " — " therefore will we not fear." 
Heaven itself would at once cease to be a place of 
infinite delight, should the Most High remove his 
presence from it, " or but conceal his face." 

Nor need the justice of God be less a source of true 
joy to the humble and obedient than is either of the 
attributes already named. Were it possible for him 
to be unjust, often might his people tremble lest, amid 
the endless provocations which he receives, he should 
swerve from absolute right. The thought that any 
rational creature is unjustly treated by God would 
sadden his children. Now they can rest perfectly as- 



JOY IN GOD. 139 

sured, that, though " Clouds and darkness are round 
about him, righteousness and judgment are the hab- 
itation of his throne." How consoling this reflection ! 
By it Abraham was comforted, as he beheld the 
smoke of burning Sodom. In view of it Aaron held 
his peace, when the fire of the Lord fell upon two of 
his sons and slew them. Eli, on the announcement 
to him of great evils, exclaimed, " It is the Lord ; let 
him do what seemeth him good." In the last book 
of the Bible are representations of the heavenly hosts 
as uttering exulting songs of praise when the over- 
whelming judgments of God overtake the enemies of 
Zion. Why ? Not because holy beings can have 
delight in the infliction of pain. • Such an emotion 
cannot exist in their hearts. It is on account of the 
exercise of divine justice in the execution of deserved 
punishment. What saint beneath the sun should 
not join with the enraptured seraphim and with the 
redeemed in heaven, who, in view of such judgments, 
say, " Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth." 

We may next speak of God's immutability. Here 
is a source of indescribable joy to every true child of 
his. On earth, fluctuation characterizes every thing 
but the truths which he has made unchangeable. 
Above the starry sky the Eternal dwells in endless 
immutability. Whatever occurs in time, the saint 
may rest in unshaken confidence that no revolution 
in the divine purposes, that no shadow of turning, 
has occurred in heaven. 

The goodness of God, especially as it stands con- 
nected with his other attributes, may occasion great 
delight in the heart of the saint. How adapted are the 



140 OUR HOLY HILL. 

declarations, " Good is the Lord," " God is love," to 
cause the children of Zion to be unceasingly happy 
in their king! 

The Lord's people should reflect upon his works. 
" The heavens declare the glory of God, and the 
firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day 
uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowl- 
edge." All nature displays the wisdom, power, and 
goodness of its Maker. Who that recognizes in the 
Most High his own spiritual Father is not delighted 
in beholding the varied, beautiful, important, and 
sublime developments of creative energy? As the 
filial child loves to ponder upon the products of an 
earthly parent's skill and strength, so should those 
who have been adopted into God's family muse with 
pleasure upon the wonders he has wrought. That 
glorious Being, who spake and it was done, intended 
that his own agency should be discoverable in all ma- 
terial and created mental existences. 

Nor less suited are the providences of God to 
awaken joy in a believer's heart. True, much which 
takes place is at the time dark and personally dis- 
tressing ; yet there may be, even then, the utmost con- 
fidence in the rectitude of him who worketh all things 
after the counsel of his own will ; also an assurance 
that present obscurity shall eventually yield to the 
brightness of heaven's light. Furthermore, while in 
the midst of the densest darkness which ever char- 
acterizes the doings of the Most High to him, the 
humble believer may confidently expect that all things 
shall work together for good, not only to the universe 
as a grand whole, but to himself as an individual. 

The scheme of redemption is fitted to inspire in a 



JOY IN GOD. 141 

Christian inexpressible delight! It is in this, that Je- 
hovah brings himself down to mortal apprehension in 
the most impressive and cheering manner. God is 
manifest in the flesh ; is revealed distinctly and ten- 
derly to the sons of earth. A theme this has been 
for angelic reflection and song. Heaven's natives 
came with pleasure from the land of ecstatic joys to 
celebrate the birth of him who appeared as Immanuel. 
Those holy beings are now unceasingly engaged in 
doing homage to him who once lay as a babe in a 
manger, and subsequently hung as a malefactor upon 
the cross. Saints, too, on high, the saved, are contin- 
ually praising their Redeemer. Let, then, the renewed 
who yet tabernacle in the flesh employ their thoughts 
much on him, in whom centres every good hope of 
future blessedness, and from whom come all terrestrial 
favors. How deep and broad and endless the stream 
of divine beneficence flowing to the Christian through 
Jesus Christ. If a survey of sin's doings is in any 
way adapted to prompt the inquiry, " Can that be a 
Being of pure benevolence who has suffered sin to 
mar the beauty of his creation, and involve his ac- 
countable creatures in consequences awful and end- 
less," an investigation of what that same Being has 
done to provide an antidote for moral evil, delivering 
transgressors, when they are penitent for sin and exer- 
cise faith in Christ, from the penalty which is their 
just desert, is suited to silence every cavil respecting 
his goodness, and to overpower the soul with amaze- 
ment at the manifestation of such mercy. 

What the believer has experienced in his own soul 
ought to excite him to praise his God with a joyful 
heart. Why are his feet on a rock ? Wherefore were 



142 OUR HOLY HILL. 

they taken from the horrible pit and miry clay? 
Whence has come that sense of pardon, so precious 
to him enjoying it? Who gave that new song which 
every regenerate person is permitted to sing ? Ques- 
tions these, easily answered. All that is implied in 
being a Christian is the result of sovereign inter- 
position on the part of him who shows mercy, or 
leaves the rebellious to harden in their vileness. " Not 
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, 
give glory." Each step, too, in the progressive course, 
from renewal till the forgiven sinner shall safely enter 
the New Jerusalem, is produced by the efficient agency 
of the Spirit. Salvation is from beginning to end 
God's work. If it can appear to be an unquestionable 
truth to any individual, that he is born of the Spirit, 
then he has an assurance of his being an heir of eter- 
nal life. They shall never perish whom the Holy 
Ghost renews. With profound joy, with sacred rap- 
ture, may such as find satisfactory evidence that the 
new heart is theirs contemplate this truth. 



THOUGHTS FOR A THANKSGIVING DAY. 

Called by the civil authorities to consecrate this 
day to meditations and utterances expressive of grati- 
tude for divine favors, let us praise God for his good- 
ness to us as individuals. Our life, which is ever as a 
vapor, he has preserved. With the utmost ease he 
could at any moment have annihilated our being, or 



THOUGHTS FOR A THANKSGIVING DAT. 143 

sent our spirits into eternity, and remanded our bodies 
back to their native dust. Let us thank him for con- 
tinued earthly existence, and for its attendant bene- 
factions ; for health continued, or restored, or im- 
proved, or for comforts in sickness. Let us praise 
him for a home and its endearments, the society of 
kindred, and the means of improvement. Let us be 
grateful for all good books, but especially for that 
which came down from heaven to be a directory in 
life, a solace in death, a guide to the celestial city. 
Let us extol him for the privilege of using that key 
— prayer, — which unlocks to us the treasuries of the 
eternal temple. Let us return thanks for the house 
of the Lord, which, amid winter's snows, spring's 
beauties, summer's heat, and autumn's reign, has 
pointed us to the paradise of God. We have been 
permitted to sit in his holy courts beneath the eye of 
infinite compassion ; to be directly under the zenith 
of the Almighty's love. Jehovah's unspeakable gift, 
the Son of his bosom, the brightness of his glory, the 
King of Zion, the Redeemer of men, the Saviour of 
the world, has welcomed us to the fulness of his grace 
every week of the last year. No day has passed over 
the Christian's head, in which he might not do more 
than touch the hem of Immanuel's garment. By the 
hand of faith and by the fervency of devotion, the 
believer has been permitted, if disposed, to throw his 
arms around the very neck of the Mediator. Nor is 
there one whose eye will ^ght upon this page, and 
who is yet bound in sin's cruel servitude, that has not 
been frequently addressed by the winning Jesus him- 
self, saying: "Come unto me" O the pinnacle to 
which we are raised, not by that malicious being 



144 OUR HOLY HILL. 

who placed the Messiah upon a lofty point of Jeru- 
salem's temple, but by the special providence of God. 
By this we are at the present moment elevated in 
respect to privileges so high that a further ascent 
would seem dangerous. We may also sympathize 
with a world of suffering human beings, and go 
forth to the ends of the earth, in person or by proxy, 
scattering blessings upon every inch of its needy sur- 
face. We may exult in multiplied triumphs of the 
cross, and expect the coming of a day when Chris- 
tianity shall be everywhere victorious. " All flesh 
shall see the salvation of God." 

Appropriately also at this season of the year, and 
in these reflections, are our thoughts directed to the 
wonders wrought in the soil. Wintry days were ban- 
ished in due season by him who had power greatly 
to multiply them. Seed-time came, and with it all 
needful inducements for the husbandman to mellow 
the land, and scatter plentifully the seeds of a future 
harvest. How varied and constant have been the 
tokens of divine regard to the ground ! What vast 
productions have been garnered ! Is there an observ- 
ing individual who can be so insensible to the Lord's 
kindness displayed the last twelve months, as not to 
spread forth his hands in gratitude ; as not to lift up 
his eyes heavenward in thankfulness ; as not to pour 
out his heart in expressions of sacred joy and pro- 
found reverence for the Being who has crowned the 
year with his goodness ? * It is he " who giveth rain 
upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields." 
" For he saith to the snow, be thou on the earth ; 
likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his 
strength." — "By the breath of God frost is given ; 



THOUGHTS FOR A THANKSGIVING DAY. 145 

and the breadth of the waters is straitened." The 
clouds "do whatsoever he commandeth them, upon 
the face of the world in the earth." — " He causeth 
the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the ser- 
vice of man." — " O Lord, how manifold are thy 
works ; in wisdom hast thou made them all ; the earth, 
is full of thy riches." 

Let us praise Jehovah for blessings on our nation. 
Have severe judgments been generally withheld from 
it, and have rich favors been granted it? Has no 
beating drum summoned our soldiers to battle fields? 
Have no " garments rolled in blood," reminded us of 
terrible carnage ? Has he, to whom belong the shields 
of the earth, given us peace ? If so, let us be grateful. 
War, horrible war! We always deprecate thine ap- 
proach, and hail with delight the harbingers of thy 
departure, when once thy terrors have begun. Evils 
there may be, more dreadful than the sacking of cities 
and the devastating of countries. The maintenance 
of government is a paramount duty ; but our prayer 
should be for the hastening of the predicted era, when 
" nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, nei- 
ther shall they learn war any more." Come, the reign 
of Immanuel. " In his days shall the righteous flour- 
ish, and abundance of peace, so long as the moon 
endureth." 

Some are disposed to attribute all our national ex- 
cellence to the men who have guided the affairs of 
the general government, and to that important instru- 
ment by which we are bound in a federal compact. 
Let us be thankful for wise and patriotic rulers, also 
for a well-framed Constitution ; but to these we owe 
no anthems. " Nations do not live by charters and 

13 



146 OUR HOLY HILL. 

constitutions." By the favor of the universal Sov- 
ereign has our country been raised to its present 
honorable elevation. " Lift not up your horn on high ; 
speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh 
neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the 
south, but God is the judge ; he putteth down one, 
and setteth up another." — " Come, behold the works 
of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the 
earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the 
earth ; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in 
sunder ; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, 
and know that I am God ; I will be exalted among 
the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." Happy 
are the nations that can say in truth, " The Lord of 
hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." In 
behalf of this great Republic: " Unto thee, O God, 
do we give thanks ; unto thee do we give thanks, for 
that thy name is near, thy wondrous works declare." 
We will beseech that our public sins may not sum- 
mon upon us the contents of that cup of wrath which 
the Most High has in his own hand, to pour out, or 
withhold, as shall seem meet in his infinite wisdom. 
We will not predict evil ; yet it is important for us 
to remember that our nation's glory may depart, and 
must depart, if the Lord turn away his favor. Jeho- 
vah's Sabbath, without which no people can long 
prosper, is not remembered by a majority of the in- 
habitants of this Union of States, as he demands it 
should be. The single evil of desecrating holy time 
is of sufficient magnitude to occasion the complete 
ruin of our government. Nor is Sabbath-breaking 
the only alarming wickedness of this country. He 
that has seeing eyes and hearing ears need not here 



THOUGHTS FOR A THANKSGIVING DAY. 147 

be presented with a list of its sins. The cry of our mul- 
tiplied transgressions has pierced the heavens. We 
tremble lest God may send his angels to destroy us 
as he did Sodom. 

When we contemplate the condition of the world 
civilly, intellectually, and morally, we certainly find 
occasion for devout gratitude to the Ruler of nations. 
His own prophecy is manifestly fulfilling. Even in- 
fidel readers of the Scriptures must see marked coin- 
cidences between what these pages assure us is to 
occur and many actual events. Tyranny is trembling. 
Like heated volcanoes are many of earth's present 
dynasties ; the fires are held in check by an invisible 
power, but are sure, erelong, to break forth in ruinous 
eruptions. " Who is this that cometh from Edom 
with dyed garments from Bozrah ? This, that is 
glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of 
his strength ? I that speak in righteousness, mighty 
to save." The kingdoms established by men have 
all been given by an eternal decree to Christ, — and 
those of them which will not •voluntarily serve him 
are to be destroyed. " He shall rule them with a rod 
of iron ; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken 
to shivers." Let us pretend to no knowledge of the 
exact era when Immanuel's victories shall be com- 
plete in the earth ; though we may feel assured that 
in an age yet future, and perhaps far off, great voices 
in heaven shall proclaim that " the kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of 
his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." It 
is possible, that, in the commotions and overturnings 
in the earth, we already see foreshadowings of that 
illustrious period when truth and holiness shall be 



148 OUR HOLY HILL. 

triumphant in all lands. Millions of mankind shall 
not forever be excluded from gospel privileges, as they 
now are. In justice and in righteous judgment God 
has permitted systems of idolatry to enchain the hearts 
and wills of myriads, from generation to generation ; 
but he informs us that thus it shall not be endlessly. 
Thy temples, great God, amiable and thronged, shall 
yet occupy the soil long shaded by the pagodas of 
superstition ; thy saints shall hereafter tread the paths 
now trodden by demon worshippers. Already beau- 
tiful, upon many a once morally dark mountain of 
our earth are the feet of him " that bringeth good 
tidings, that publisheth peace ; that bringeth good 
tidings of good, that publisheth salvation ; that saith 
unto Zion, thy God reigneth." When giving our- 
selves up to the bright visions of prophecy, we almost 
imagine that we see the Apocalyptic angel standing 
in the sun, and hear him ominously calling upon the 
fowls of the air to come, that they may devour the 
slain in the great battle of God Almighty. At such 
times, we think our e£rs may yet listen to the jubilee 
trumpet of him " clothed with a vesture dipped in 
blood," whose name is " called the Word of God," 
proclaiming that Satan is bound, and that the world's 
salvation has fully come. It is well, occasionally, to 
gaze on the luminous part of the picture. We should 
not, however, forget that storms and tempests, perse- 
cutions and fiery trials, may hereafter darken every 
quarter of the moral heavens ; fill Zion with tears, 
and compel God's own children to fear that he hath 
forgotten to be gracious. Far be it from us to shut 
our eyes to the dark prospects of the church. 

While to-day, we who dwell beneath the divine 



THOUGHTS FOR A THANKSGIVING DAY. 149 

shadow in great delight utter our thankful notes of 
praise, we will not forget the woes of the world, nor 
will we fail to send up to the benignant throne of 
God, petitions of his own Spirit's inditing for each 
one now in sorrow, or who may, in any future time, 
drink of the bitter cup. " The Lord hear thee in the 
day of trouble ; the name of the God of Jacob de- 
fend thee, send thee help from the sanctuary, and 
strengthen thee out of Zion." — " The Lord fulfil all 
thy petitions." 

Whatever may have befallen us as individuals, or 
the communities in which we live, or our nation, or 
mankind in general, still let us render thanks to God, 
in private and in public. " Oh, magnify the Lord with 
me, and let us exalt his name together." — " He hath 
made his wonderful works to be remembered." — 
" We will bless the Lord from this time forth and 
for evermore." Spirit of holiness ! fill our souls with 
those rapturous emotions which swelled the heart of 
the Psalmist, when he summoned the heavens and the 
earth to join in a universal anthem to Jehovah : — 

"Praise ye him, all his angels; praise ye him, all 
his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon ; praise 
him, all ye stars of light. Praise him ye heavens of 
heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. 
Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all 
deeps ; fire and hail ; snow and vapors ; stormy wind 
fulfilling his word; mountains and all hills; fruitful 
trees, and all cedars ; beasts, and all cattle ; creeping 
things and flying fowl; kings of the earth, and all 
people ; princes, and all judges of the earth ; both 
young men and maidens ; old men and children. Let 
them praise the name of the Lord ; for his name alone 

13* 



150 OUR HOLY HILL. 

is excellent, his glory is above the earth and heaven. 
Let every thing that hath breath, praise the Lord. 
Praise ye the Lord." May we praise him to-day, 
while life lasts, and eternally in that blissful world 
where neither sin nor sorrow shall be known. 



EEFLECTIONS AT THE OPENING OF A 
NEW YEAR. 

Another year has departed. Its months, weeks, 
days, hours, and minutes are all gone. It is well for 
us to pause at the completion of a year, and inquire 
wherein we have erred in past time, and how w T e may 
attempt judiciously the performance of duty in the 
future. Our relations to society are too important to 
be treated with levity. Deficiencies, of w^hich we as 
citizens may have been guilty, should cause us to 
w 7 eep, and what we have accomplished for the benefit 
of society should excite our gratitude for the oppor- 
tunity enjoyed, and for a disposition to improve it. 
To us, as moral and accountable beings, the past of 
our lives is admonitory and variously suggestive ; by 
listening to the lessons of our own experience, we 
may become wiser for time, and better prepared for 
eternity. Living, moving, and having our being in 
the God who rules over the seasons, we ought to 
bring him a tribute of praise for that guardian good- 
ness which has attended us. Bearing about in our 
individual persons the sentence, " Dust thou art, and 



REFLECTIONS ON A NEW YEAR. 151 

unto dust shalt thou return," we ought not to omit 
the solemn interrogatory, " How long have I to live?" 
Nor fail to offer that ancient prayer, " So teach us to 
number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto 
wisdom." 

We are authorized to expect that the new year 
will bear many striking resemblances to that which 
has just left us, while the movements of nature and 
the revolutions of nations may be rapidly tending to 
convulsions unknown before in time ; convulsions 
physical, civil, and religious. 

Like its own immediate predecessor, the year just 
closed had days of brightness, and days that were 
dark. Seasons came in due order and time ; continued 
for a while, and took their leave. Winter, as usual, 
was succeeded by spring. Genial rays from the sun 
unlocked the earth, and gentle showers caused the 
green herbs to appear. Nature arose from a death- 
like repose, clothed in the beauties of a new creation. 
Summer knew its place, and delighted our eyes with 
its varied richness — its endless diversifications of 
beauty and grandeur. Autumn lingered not in its 
coming, nor in its going. It occupied the space al- 
lotted to it by Him, whose bow in the cloud guar- 
antees that " While the earth remaineth, seed-time 
and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and win- 
ter, and day and night, shall not cease." Having com- 
pleted his visit to these northern climes, the sun 
withdrew to cheer and bless the dwellers on the south 
of the equator; but lo, even now he has begun his 
return to us ! Faithful luminary ! 

Morality and religion have not died out the past 
year, as infidels earnestly hoped and fervently prayed 



152 OUR HOLY HILL. 

they might. Signs of truth's ultimate triumph have 
not been wanting during the twelve months just 
closed. Pure religion is indeed a plant of slow 
growth in the soil of earth, but God himself here 
planted it. He has hitherto nurtured it, and will con- 
tinue to do so till its greatness shall fill the world, 
and a larger territory be demanded for it in the wide 
realms of heaven. From time to time infidelity puts 
on new phases, without, however, repenting of any of 
its old falsehoods. The kingdom of Christ has been 
visibly onward during the last year. He who is 
destined to reign until all enemies are beneath his 
feet, is moving forward from " conquering to conquer." 

Casting our thoughts toward the months, weeks, 
and days of the year now opening upon us, we 
see a repetition substantially of what has transpired 
in the departed year. " The thing that hath been, it 
is that which shall be." Winter shall again give 
place to spring, and the other seasons arrive in their 
turn. Zephyrs shall again blow softly upon the 
ground ; the voice of the turtle be heard ; the fields 
again be dressed in gayety and goodness. Again will 
thunders roll through the aerial vault, and swift light- 
nings cut the thick clouds. Again will the descend- 
ing sun dip his beams in the drops of the summer 
shower, and paint in divine colors the bow of God 
on his own overarching canvas. 

The opening year will have its aspirants for the 
high places of the earth and its abusers of power. 
Oppression's iron foot will tread down the poor of 
the earth, causing the cry of the widow and of the 
fatherless to enter into the ears of an avenging God. 
Chains will continue to be forged for the enslaved, 



REFLECTIONS ON A NEW YEAR. 153 

and their clanking be heard by him whose pity for 
the downtrodden is as tender as is a father's for a 
child. Weeping and wailing because of woes in- 
flicted by merciless man upon his fellow will not at 
once cease from the earth. 

But affluence and power have their griefs ; they 
are compelled to sigh in sorrow. Silver and gold are 
often cankered, and costly garments are moth-eaten. 
The very profusion of the table may repel him, for 
whose appetite its numberless dainties have been 
gathered. 

Irreligion will continue to inspire its devotees with 
zeal to wax worse and worse, as Scripture predicteth. 
Reckless defamers of Christianity, impudent infiels 
and reformers, themselves needing a reform, have not 
yet wholly accomplished their mission. In due time, 
however, they shall be looked for in vain ; the Lord 
having consumed them with the spirit of his mouth, 
and destroyed them with the brightness of his com- 
ing. Immanuel, not by a personal reign on earth, 
but by a spiritual administration, is at length to pos- 
sess all lands and to subdue all people. 

We may believe that divinely appointed means to 
enlighten and save mankind will neither be inferior in 
number nor employed with less vigor the present 
year than they have been in the past, and we may 
hope for greater manifestations of the Sanctifier's 
agency than have appeared the last twelve months. 
At least some of the rebellious shall be brought into 
humble submission to the King of Zion, while others, 
it is feared in numbers far greater, will be left still in 
unbelief, the slaves of strong delusions. 

Pilgrims toward the eternal city will one after 



154 OUR HOLY HILL. 

another be departing, during the present year, from 
most communities, where they are now encamped, 
for their endless homes. Nor will all the heirs of hell 
who are alive this day be survivors when the clarion 
shall announce the approach of another year. Sin- 
ners, not less than saints, are forced to go the way 
whence they cannot return. " Why are thy valiant 
men swept away ? They stood not, because the 
Lord did drive them." 

Who are to be the actors in the next twelve months ? 
On what ears will the music of the feathered song- 
sters fall, when they again come forth to chant the 
praise of him whose they are and whom they serve ? 
Whose eyes will gaze upon the enchanting land- 
scape when nature is again attired in the gorgeous- 
ness of her summer robes ? Who are to watch the 
fires of the Almighty when he shall rekindle them in 
the vapors of the sultry evening? Again will the 
voice of the Most High be heard in pealing thunders, 
but who will be the listeners when he shall thus once 
more awe the earth ? Flowers are again to bloom 
in the fields and by the way-side, sending forth their 
odors as incense. Human eyes shall see them, and 
human hands pluck them ; but whose are the eyes 
that shall see them, and whose are the hands that 
shall handle them ? Autumn will again come with 
a harvest which ought to excite the truest gratitude, 
and awaken the warmest praise to the Sovereign of the 
seasons. But who shall gather the harvests of this 
new year, and join in hymns of thanksgiving to that 
Sovereign, when the garners shall have once more 
been replenished ? 

Philanthropists will plead for the oppressed, while 



REFLECTIONS ON A NEW TEAR. 155 

this new year shall glide away. Tyranny shall not, 
unrebuked, tread down the innocent and defenceless ; 
God will not leave the wronged without an advocate ; 
their griefs will affect his heart, and he will send them 
helpers in the persons of their fellow-beings ; but by 
whom shall such honorable allotments be enjoyed ? 

Champions for the truth, defenders of the faith 
once delivered to the saints, will not be wanting the 
present year. Zion's King will provide them ; but 
who are to be thus distinguished ? Where now are 
many who were in the field of holy warfare twelve 
months since ? They have passed " the time ap- 
pointed," and been summoned to a higher sphere. 

We can have only faint impressions of the devasta- 
tions occasioned by death in a single year. Upon 
what new scenes of sorrow does the sun daily shine ? 
Oh, what throngs crowd the gate of eternity ! Heaven, 
we hope, is receiving great accessions ; but hell must 
be fast becoming populous. Wealth has never saved 
one from the grave nor from the doom of the un- 
godly. Abundance, greeting one at every turn, can- 
not shut out the unwelcome caller, death. Misers 
may hear the peremptory summons while they are 
counting their treasured coin. Epicures may expire 
while feasting on their choicest luxuries. Honor 
seekers are often palsied while in pursuit of their 
fancied good. Eager hunters for earthly gain fre- 
quently die in the midst of an unsuccessful chase. 
The great destroyer may call the mechanic from his 
shop, the clerk from his desk, the salesman from his 
counter, the farmer from his field, the traveller from 
amid his journey, the medicinal practitioner from the 
abundance of his curatives, and the preacher from 



156 OUR HOLY HILL. 

his pulpit. What has been in the past year in these re- 
spects, we doubt not is to be in the present. The 
feeble often live, while the strong die. Aged persons 
linger in time, and youthful ones are hurried into eter- 
nity. Society's choicest members are cut down as the 
flower, while the banes of humanity remain to en- 
cumber the ground and contaminate the community. 
To-day we live. Our eyes have seen the light of a 
new year. Some there are among us who can em- 
ploy the poet's lines without a qualification. 

" I scarce can meet a monument, but holds 
My younger ; every date cries, come away." 

Happy in the bosom of infinite blessedness are 
those who have already entered the golden city. Oh 
the bliss awaiting some who shall pass beyond the 
veil during the present year! 

Brighter days than have gladdened the world since 
the canopy of sin was spread over it are decreed, but 
we expect not the development of their full blessed- 
ness at once. Wars must still rage. God himself 
has fields to strew with carnage. An angel is yet to 
take his stand in the sun, and summon together at 
Christ's bidding all the carnivorous birds " that fly in 
the midst of heaven " to eat the flesh of kings, of 
captains, of mighty men, and of the free and the bond, 
both small and great. We may cry peace in the 
ears of the nations, but peace will not be permanent 
till all the birds of prey have eaten of " the supper of 
the great God." It were as wise to attempt to thresh 
the mountains with a straw, as to establish peace 
through the world by means of man's devising. Oh, 
we may well shudder at the prospect before the 



BEYOND THE TOMB. 157 

nations. The great day of the Lamb's wrath is com- 
ing, is coming- ; it may be at the door. Say peace, ye 
who can, Jehovah has doubtless decreed many a war! 
But at length Heaven's King shall plant his peace 
standard among the nations, and cause the white 
banner thereof to wave over them all ! 



BEYOND THE TOMB. 

The current of our individual existence has been 
flowing but a short time. It can boast of no terres- 
trial antiquity ; much less may ic be traced back into 
eternity. Onward, however, it is to flow ; never is it 
to be lost in the sands of earth ; never is it to be anni- 
hilated in all the measureless extent of a coming 
eternity. 

Future endless existence for every human being is 
revealed as a fact. Natural instinct suggests thepos- 
sibility of our living when the lamp of our present 
life has been extinguished ; reason is pleased with the 
suggestion, and hopes that it is founded on truth. 
No man, who has not wickedly divested himself of the 
higher promptings of his mental nature, desires to be 
nothing after death. Still, to the open, direct, and 
impressive declarations of the Bible, are we indebted 
for the doctrine of a never-ceasing human existence. 
He that fills immensity with his presence has un- 
equivocally made known to us that we are to exist 
eternally. Whether mortal or immortal in their own 

14 



158 OUR HOLY HILL. 

natures, he has stamped souls for an endless being. 
The infant and the adult have entered upon an infi- 
nite career. We see fall to the dust the seared leaf 
of autumn and the frost-nipped blossom of early 
spring; but not thus perishes the animating agency 
once within them. The vital principle which gave 
greenness to the leaf and fragrance to the flower 
survives all changes of seasons ; all devastations of 
untimely cold and terrific tempests. New leaves 
grow upon the branch whence others have fallen ; new 
blossoms appear on the stem from which predecessors 
may have been rudely severed. God holds during 
winter, in his own embrace, that vital principle which 
changes, in spring, earth's desolateness into beauty 
and fertility. He, too, retains alive within the pre- 
cincts of his empire the souls of all who die. While 
the sleep of death rests upon human eyelids, while 
the winter of the grave locks up the bodies of man- 
kind, those souls are kept in activity by Omnipotence. 
At length this sleep of death shall be broken, this 
winter of the grave shall be ended ; the trump of God 
shall rive the land, and move the depths of the waters. 
Great and small of Adam's race shall live again ; 
bodies and souls shall form a new, an eternal union. 

Onward, onward is hastening the stream of life. 
Day and night succeed each other in rapid alter- 
nations. Weeks begin and quickly end. Months 
are with us for so brief a time that we scarcely 
become familiar with their names ere they depart. 
Years rush on like the eagle hastening to its prey. 

To what condition is the soul of man borne, when 
wafted beyond the region of the terrestrial shore ? It 
comes not back to inform us ! No delegate of earthly 



BEYOND THE TOMB. 159 

origin has been returned by the emigrants from time, 
to tell the sojourners beneath the sun how it fares 
with those who have entered upon the future state. 
Hence, mere human conjectures about the scenes of 
eternity are worthless. Man's vision does not pierce 
beyond the curtain of time. He has no innate knowl- 
edge of infinite affairs. But God, in revealing the fact 
of man's future endless existence, has made known 
something more than the naked fact. A heaven all 
glorious, the capital of the universe, the abode of the 
Almighty, is described by his own Inspiration. Some 
souls in passing from time are admitted into that holy 
place. Not all are thus favored. " Blessed are the 
pure in heart, for they shall see God." The number 
possessing this pureness is very limited. Only here 
and there one among many travellers to eternity is 
prepared for God's holy dwelling-place. By far the 
greater proportion of the human family die destitute 
of heart purity. Can this statement be called in 
question by any enlightened person ? Surely not ! 
It is an obvious fact that most people die as they 
have lived, without holiness, and one must renounce 
every vestige of his rational nature, before he can be- 
lieve that workers of iniquity are prepared for an abode 
of spotless holiness. 

The wicked on leaving time are not inducted into 
the celestial paradise ; they are not annihilated. What 
becomes of them ? God has told us. He says that 
they enter at once upon an endless state of suffering. 
" Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 
Punishment intense and eternal is. theirs. It may be 
affirmed, without the slightest fear of contradiction, 
that every believer in the full inspiration of the Scrip- 



160 OUR HOLY HILL. 

tures, recognizes, as taught by them, the doctrine of 
everlasting misery. Not only are there numerous 
passages individually asserting it, but it is implied 
everywhere in those pages. 

Man by sin fell under condemnation. By listening 
to an evil angel, he subjected himself to the doom of 
that angel. No candid reader of what the Bible says 
in regard to the first transgression of man, can doubt 
that by it the wrath of God was incurred. Suppose no 
interposition of mercy had been pledged, what would 
have become of the primevous sinners, the progenitors 
of our race ? What says reason ? Tax, O man, thy 
logical ability, and reveal, if thou canst, what will be 
this first sin's desert and doom ! Two persons, formed 
in God's image and placed under a law of obedience 
to him, rebel against him. He is perfectly holy ; they 
become transgressors. Is not the breach between them 
eternal, if he do not undertake to repair it? If man 
have listened to the devil rather than to his Maker, is 
he not consequently a perpetual servant of his ma- 
licious master? God interposed to help the ruined 
Adam and the ruined Eve ; a dispensation of grace 
was introduced by him, an economy of mercy was 
appointed ; he thought best to render heaven available 
to sinful man ; he did not abandon to everlasting 
burnings all our race. But the scheme of redemption 
is based on the solemn fact that sin dooms the sinner 
to quenchless fire. Really there is no meaning in all 
that has been done to save mankind, if they be not 
under sentence of eternal death. If sinners enter 
Paradise, as a matter of course, when they depart 
from time, all which the Scriptures exhibit of a rem- 
edial system is folly. "We have no occasion, how- 



BEYOND THE TOMB. 161 

ever, for suppositions ; the doctrine of endless misery, 
as has been stated, is clearly and fully taught by In- 
spiration. God has acted his own pleasure in select- 
ing terms and figures by which to set forth the woes 
of the finally lost. It would not be wise for us to 
criticize him. Just that degree of definiteness and 
fearfulness which he desired to impart to his revelation 
on this subject, it contains. How obviously is it our 
duty to open our ears to all he says, and to be awed 
by the terrors of his announcements ! Fire is one of 
the emblems by which the impenitent's everlasting 
agonies are depicted. Will those who shall depart 
from Christ, at his bidding — on that day which is to 
settle for eternity their condition — pass into literal 
fire ? Yes, if God has said they will. But he may 
have employed the term fire figuratively. Suppose 
he has ; can this fact serve to soothe a mind anxiously 
meditating on the sufferings of the lost? Not in the 
least! Either there is in hell a literal fire, or there is 
such suffering as is most suitably and forcibly sym- 
bolized by fire. It cannot be proved that the ungodly 
will not be tormented by a literal fire. The sinner, 
however, dying impenitent, carries within him a 
heated self-feeding furnace ; a quenchless fire. He 
must become a penitent in time, or be annihilated in 
eternity, or be forever tortured. Some, yea, many 
millions pass away impenitently, yet not one is anni- 
hilated. 

It is objected to the doctrine of future endless pun- 
ishment that God is love ! But how does the objector 
know that God is love? The works of nature do not 
demonstrate the truth of such a proposition. Tokens 
numerous and impressive of divine goodness are, we 
14* 



162 OUR HOLY HILL. 

admit, observable in the works of creation. Still, there 
are seemingly tokens of an opposite character. Provi- 
dences are often dark. Who sends tornadoes ? Who 
overwhelms in the deep ships freighted with human 
beings ? Who cuts down the promising youth ? Who 
lays in an untimely grave the valuable citizen ? Who 
takes away suddenly the industrious husband and the 
kind father ? Why is this world so full of woes, if 
the Maker and Governor of it be love ? 

Again, we ask, how does the objector to the doc- 
trine of endless punishment know that God is love ? 
He has only one source of information — the Scrip- 
tures. But if the testimony of the Bible be worthy to 
be received on one point, it is on all those points of 
which it treats. Does one believe that God is love, 
because the Bible affirms he is ; that individual is 
bound to receive its testimony throvghout. Now this 
volume has scores of passages teaching unambig- 
uously that the finally impenitent will be forever 
punished, where it has one asserting that God is love. 
Is it rational to disbelieve the teachings of the greater 
number, and believe those of the less ? No ! The 
objector is not sincere in his recurrence to Scripture. 
Similar may be the reply to other such resortings to 
the Bible for proof that no sinner will suffer eternally. 
The objector to the doctrine does not believe the Bible. 
It is not his rule of faith. He quotes Scripture as 
good authority, or as of no authority, just as he fan- 
cies it will favor his theory of no future endless pun- 
ishment, and thus he proves himself insincere. 

God's benevolence demands the eternal exclusion 
from heaven of all malevolence ; and sin is essentially 
malevolent. Why doubt that Jehovah is equally be- 



BEYOND THE TOMB. 163 

nevolent when he shuts the sinner up in hell, and 
when he receives the saint into heaven ? God cannot 
be at any time unjust ! God's attributes are himself; 
his very being developed. They are always harmoni- 
ous and cooperative. 

We read in the Psalms, that the mercy of the Lord 
endureth forever, and the sentiment is again and 
again repeated. Why such a repetition of the term 
mercy as we find ? Is it that we may infer the ex- 
tinction, eventually, of the justice of God? No! The 
record is many times made for the comfort of those 
who might fear that the mercy of the Lord would be 
wearied out. 

Again, the doctrine of endless punishment is dis- 
carded by some. Does this fact affect the truth ? 
Has not man always been inclined to disbelieve God ? 
Did not Cain lack faith in his Maker ? Were not the 
antediluvians unbelievers ? Were not the messages 
of the Lord, as sent by the prophets, generally re- 
jected ? Was not Christ crucified by the enemies of 
the truths which he preached ? Is it not an element 
in human depravity to reject the words of God, which 
denounce woes upon sinners? Would it not be 
strange if the lovers of unholiness should welcome a 
doctrine which delivers them over to everlasting burn- 
ings ? Be it remembered, however, that a disbelief 
in the existence of a hell does not annihilate its exist- 
ence. What God has ordained shall exist will not 
become wow-existent at the beck of a finite rebel. 
Man's faith or want of faith changes nothing in the 
divine economy. 

Is it inquired, if some who utterly reject this doc- 
trine do not apparently die in peace ? Perhaps they 



164 OUR HOLY HILL. 

do ! We quote from the Lively Oracles : " And for 
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that 
they should believe a lie, that they all might be 
damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure 
in unrighteousness." 

There may be instances of penitence in the heart, 
yet obscurity be in the mind relative to truth ; Christ 
being loved, yet the strictness of the moral law being 
but dimly perceived. God looketh on the heart, 
and with him we should leave such darkened intel- 
lects. 

If, as we are told, some who openly profess a belief 
in the doctrine of future punishment, secretly deny it, 
they are hypocrites, and will be judged accordingly. 
They have lied unto God more than to men. 



PREPARE TO LIVE. PREPARE TO DIE. 

What the venerable but dim-sighted Isaac once 
said to his thoughtless son Esau is worthy of self- 
appropriation by every person, young or old : " I 
know not the day of my death." Inspiration has said 
with great pertinency, " As the fishes that are taken 
in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the 
snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, 
when it falleth suddenly upon them." 

Only a few individuals are so deluded as to imag- 
ine that the day of their dissolution is known to them. 
Instances have, indeed, occurred, in which some have 



PREPARE TO LIVE. PREPARE TO DIE. 165 

predicted their own deaths, and have expired in ac- 
cordance with such predictions. But who may affirm 
that the breath did not depart in all these cases, in 
consequence of the impression on the imagination 
that there must be a dying at such a time ? No finite 
mind can know aught of the future, whether distant 
or near, except as God makes revelations. That he 
now communicates to any one a knowledge of the 
hour when this or that soul shall leave a body is not 
in the least degree probable. 

If the day of one's death be not revealed to him, he 
ought not hastily to conclude that it is unquestionably 
very near. Certain diseases are known to be sure 
precursors of approaching death ; hence, whoever is 
a subject to any of them may well make speedy prep- 
aration for his exit from earth. The destroyer has 
marked him, and he must come down. Ordinarily, 
a hopeful view of life-prospects ought to be taken, and 
to dwell yet for a season beneath God's starry heavens 
be considered a favor. Time has its trials, but they 
should be endured with meekness and resoluteness. 
Earth has its storms, yet he is faint-hearted indeed 
who does not courageously brave them. Irresolution 
ought never to meet the sun's eye in all its inspections 
of our race. 

Who should not be prepared to live ? But one 
can have no such preparation while he allows himself 
to be the prey of a morbid impression that his grave 
will inevitably be occupied in less than a week. Our 
plans of usefulness should be so laid that we may 
continue for years on earth, if the Most High judge 
best to spare us. Scripture does forbid our boasting 1 
of even to-morrow, declaring that we know not what 



166 OUR HOLY HILL. 

a day may bring forth. We are commanded by 
Christ not to take anxious thought for so much as 
the food of the next twenty-four hours ; yet the prin- 
ciples by which he requires us to regulate our lives 
will, if duly regarded, render us his faithful servants, 
wherever our lot may be cast. Obligations to our 
fellow men will rest upon us so long as we sojourn 
in time. It is not wise to grow old prematurely, as 
some do, by relinquishing cares. Parents, by a too 
early surrendering of the guardianship of their homes 
to their children, may hurry themselves into the grave. 
Activity is favorable to health and happiness. How 
many fall like untimely figs, because of an abandon- 
ment of needful responsibilities ! Too much care and 
labor are better than too little. It is wiser to allow 
ourselves to be worn out by useful services, than to 
pine away for want of sufficient exercise. 

A life of usefulness is an honorable life. Waste 
of time is an offence against God. It will never be 
a comforting reflection to a dying man, that he 
passed any part of the period allotted him without 
exerting himself to be useful. 

If the day of one's death be unknown to him, then 
it is the veriest presumption for him to assert that he 
shall not die soon. He may be summoned into eter- 
nity in less than an hour. What multitudes die 
without one perceived premonitory symptom ! Our 
infinite Sustainer veils the future from us. What 
the nearest moment to that actually here will bring 
us, we see not. No signal of its message is given, 
the purport of which is definite. In God we live ; he 
commands it, and we die. " Put not your trust in 
princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no 



PREPARE TO LIVE. PREPARE TO DIE. 167 

help. His breath goeth forth; he returneth to his 
earth ; in that very day his thoughts perish," that is, 
his plans for time are at an end. 

If the uncertainty of life be such that no one can 
know the day of his death, then every one should be 
constantly preparing to die. What constitutes a 
preparation for death ? Before entering into the vital 
part of a definite answer to this question, we will 
specify certain requisites, the possession of which does 
not constitute a full preparation for death, yet without 
which, one cannot be prepared. 

A dishonest person is not prepared to die. Honesty 
in our dealings with mankind does not, indeed, con- 
stitute a preparation ; but he that lacks this excellence 
is most surely destitute of what does constitute it. 
" A false balance is an abomination to the Lord." 
God sanctions no intrigue, no deception. He has an 
irreversible sentence of condemnation for every one 
appearing before him in eternity, unpardoned in this 
respect. 

The believer in false doctrines is not prepared to 
die. We do not say that those who are theoretically 
correct on religious points are fitted to enter heaven ; 
their intellects may receive the truth, while their af- 
fections are opposed to it, or, at least, do not love it. 
Nor should we affirm that none who seem to die 
holding erroneous sentiments on essential points of 
Christianity, pass as pardoned sinners into the pres- 
ence of God. The Holy Spirit does, we may hope, 
in some cases, purify the heart and disencumber 
the intellect of heretical sentiments, after the powers 
of utterance are gone. It is possible that a man 
should lie on his death-bed, having become a true 



168 OUR HOLY HILL. 

disciple of Jesus at the last hour, and be holding 
communion with the Three that bear record in 
heaven, though the defenders of damnable heresies 
be hovering around him, as if he were still, as he had 
been, a disciple of their own school. Christ can speak 
to the heart, and the heart respond to him, after one's 
powers of articulation have become inoperative. 

No one is prepared to die because he has been a 
kind neighbor, a useful citizen. Natural instinct 
should prompt to the exercise of kindness. Brute 
beasts may be kind ; they often manifest marked 
mutual affection. An unneighborly neighbor, one 
who has no sympathy with the sorrowing, one who 
will make no sacrifices to benefit the suffering, is as 
odious now as when the priest and the Levite left 
unaided the man who fell among thieves between 
Jerusalem and Jericho. But there is a great amount 
of Pharisaical kindness in the world. We have heard 
many trumpets sounding, to call us to bow down 
and worship individuals who are denominated kind. 
We have known scores of people that paid homage 
to the good deeds of human beings, especially their 
own, that never bent the knee in adoration of him 
from whom cometh every blessing; and that never 
sat for the shortest moment at the feet of Jesus. 
How many are every week voting themselves the 
best saints of the world, because they have lived in 
close proximity to each other without disagreement. 
They should reflect that perhaps Satan perceives no 
occasion for setting them at variance. If they be se- 
curely within his fold, he may be well pleased to 
leave them in quietness. True Christians are con- 
tinually the subjects of his assaults. Whoever begins 



PREPARE TO LIVE. PREPARE TO DIE. 169 

to follow Christ in a regenerate life has entered upon 
a warfare with the prince of darkness which will end 
only when the summons shall bid the pious combatant 
ascend to the company of those who carry palm 
branches in their hands, and wear crowns of gold 
upon their heads. Still we fear not to assert, that, as 
a general rule, Christians are the best neighbors, and 
contend far less among themselves than do the non- 
professing. 

Much is said in some quarters about " Practical 
Christianity ;" and there are men who claim to be 
the special exponents of such a religion. Now the 
only Christianity which God has given to the world 
is practical. But the practice demanded flows from 
the doctrines constituting both the framework and 
the heart of the system. A practical Christianity 
that does not rest upon the atonement, as its foun- 
dation, is a burlesque on God's unspeakable gift. 
Heathen moralists have sent down to us from their 
sunless, moonless times, volumes better fitted to be 
our guide in daily practice, than are the books of 
those modern illuminators of life's pathway who trust 
not as penitents in a bleeding Saviour. Practical 
Christianity, as exhibited by its self-glorying exegetes, 
is a mere "sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." 
It is most circumscribed in territory, superficial in 
its searchings for evils to be cured, and unskilful in 
the application of its own remedies. It is selfish, 
unmanly, and as far from the teachings of Jesus as 
heaven is from hell. It is a religious Gilboa, without 
rain or dew. 

A willingness to die is no sure proof of a prep- 
aration for death. In itself, it is no proof whatever. 

15 



170 OUR HOLY HILL. 

Many of the vilest persons on earth are willing, yea, 
even desirous to die. The practice of committing sui- 
cide is becoming one of the fashions of the day. 
Many a Judas is now following the example, in this 
respect, of him who bore that name with the suffix 
Iscariot. One can have no true conception of death, 
except through the Scriptures. They alone reveal 
the future state, and the consequences following upon 
the dissolution of the body. In them are set forth a 
heaven and a hell. In order that one's willingness to 
die be any proof of his preparation for death, such 
willingness must be accompanied with evidence that 
he is a penitent truster in the atoning merits of God's 
Lamb. 

With brevity, yet with unshaken confidence in the 
truth of the statement, we say that the essential, the 
vital part of a preparation for death, is the possession 
of faith in Christ. Without this, all else is as noth- 
ing. Where such faith exists, there is love to God 
and every good work. If our departed kindred were 
believers in Jesus prior to their death, they passed, on 
leaving time, to the heavenly Jerusalem ; but not 
otherwise. We may attempt to canonize them as 
saints, when God knows they are but lost sinners. 
We may reject the idea of a hell ; yet its fires will 
continue to burn. We may resolve and re-resolve 
that we will enter heaven, though Christ be to us "as 
a root out of a dry ground," having " no form nor 
comeliness," and " no beauty that we should desire 
him," but we shall certainly depart into everlasting 
punishment if the God of the Bible sit upon the 
throne of his holiness. Faith in Christ saves the 
soul possessing it ; a want of it, however, changes not 



NO EXCHANGE FOR A LOST SOUL. 171 

the truth of the following scripture : " He that be- 
lieveth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath 
of God abideth on him." Gods abiding tvrath ! 



NO EXCHANGE FOR A LOST SOUL. 

Our Lord has left on record the following solemn 
inquiries. " For what shall it profit a man if he gain 
the whole world, and lose his own soul ? Or what 
shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? " 

It is needful, first, to ascertain the import, in this 
connection, of the term soul. This word has different 
significations in the Scriptures, but in the questions 
of Jesus just quoted one of two must be attached to 
it. Evidently it means simple life, or the immortal 
part of man. If we assign to it the former of these 
as the exclusive import, Christ is thereby made to 
utter not merely unmeaning language, but what is 
contradictory to known facts. It is not a universal 
truth that efforts to preserve temporal existence occa- 
sion its termination, nor does recklessness of it guar- 
antee its continuance. Yet, immediately before ask- 
ing those questions, he made the ensuing statement: 
" For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but 
whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, and the gos- 
pel's, the same shall save it." The original, here 
rendered life, is translated soul in the two inter- 
rogatories, and in this quotation two senses are con- 
joined. We may paraphrase thus : Whosoever makes 



172 OUR HOLY HILL. 

it a supreme aim to save his present life shall not 
always succeed; he shall eventually die ; neither shall 
he enjoy his earthly existence while it continues ; 
moreover, he shall perish eternally ; but whosoever is 
ready to sacrifice present pleasure, and devote himself, 
without regard to comfort, health, or life, to the honor 
of the Redeemer, in promoting truth and righteous- 
ness in the world, he shall have sweet peace in time, 
and shall secure a blessed existence beyond the grave. 

The transition from a use of the original with a 
sort of double import, to the employment of it in the 
highest sense possible, is perfectly natural. That 
Christ did so use it in these stirring interrogations 
before us admits not of a doubt. His thoughts are on 
that endless state of being to which all mankind 
hasten, and whence none return. 

What is implied in one's gaining the whole world ? 
That he should obtain possession of every continent 
and island ; of all the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and 
springs of water ; of the various modes of travelling, as 
stages, steam-cars, steamboats ; of the treasures of 
minerals and metals, such as iron, copper, tin, silver, 
gold, and whatever others there may be ; money in 
specie, and money in paper ; houses with all their fur- 
niture ; the commerce of the nations ; the endless 
products of art, also the skill in which they originated ; 
science, with its profound depths and soaring heights ; 
books and manuscripts ; ships and merchandise. It 
implies the possession of the kingdoms and dominions 
of the earth, with their wealth, luxury, and wonders'; 
the right to dethrone monarchs and the power to re- 
instate them, or to elevate better or worse men in 
their places ; the control of the navies and land-forces 



NO EXCHANGE FOE A LOST SOUL. 173 

of the nations. To gain the whole world would be 
to possess as complete a mastery of it, as any man 
does of a farm or of a factory. At the feet of him 
who had made this great acquisition, all the honors 
beneath the sun would be laid ; splendors of every 
grade, and distinctions of every degree, would be at 
his service ; each meekly exclaiming, behold me, be- 
hold me ; I wait thy will ! 

What is implied in losing the soul ? Mankind are, 
by nature, in a lost condition ; yet, through the merit 
of Immanuel, they are recoverable from their present 
lost state. Scattered indeed they are in the wilder- 
ness of sin, and are stumbling on the dark mountains 
of death, but are within the possibility of coming out ; 
entering the path of life, and reaching the land of 
blessedness. Such being the merciful provision made 
by divine goodness for the deliverance of lost souls 
from their present ruined situation, it is only when an 
immortal spirit has gone from time, unprepared for 
the holy habitation of God, that we emphatically 
denominate it lost. Then it is eternally excluded 
from all enjoyment ; " dies, as far as a soul can die ; " 
sinks beneath the reach of infinite mercy. Impenitent 
souls are not annihilated. All souls are immortal. 
Whatever be their essence, they must exist forever, 
because he that made them has so decreed. The 
atheist imagines that he should prove his own non- 
existence after the death of his body, provided he 
could show the thinking agent to be material. He is 
mistaken, for if matter think now, it may through end- 
less ages. If matter now have a conscience, it may 
have one interminably. It were as easy, however, to 
prove that one's fingers are pure spirit, as that what 

15* 



174 OUR HOLY HILL. 

thinks is only organized matter. That millions of 
souls have been lost, and that millions now on pro- 
bation will be lost, there is the strongest reason for 
believing. What are the agonies of lost souls we 
have no means of knowing, except from the Holy 
Scriptures ; and these, to set them forth, employ the 
most terrific figures furnished by human speech. 

The way is now prepared to contemplate the first 
question of Jesus : " What shall it profit a man, if he 
gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? " The 
propounder is thoroughly acquainted with the value 
of the world, also of the soul. In what way could 
the fact that one had become so great a possessor as 
is supposed, benefit him if his soul be lost ? By what 
method might immeasurable material wealth secured 
in time, serve him whose imperishable spirit has 
passed into eternity ? A lost soul is in hell, and the 
clay which once formed its habitation is deposited in 
kindred dust, or has sunk into a watery grave, to re- 
main till the great morning come. Hence, when the 
soul is lost, naught of the individual remains on earth 
to share in the accumulated splendors of an acquired 
world. Should millions of dollars be expended on a 
monument, the dead body thus honored would real- 
ize nothing of it. What could lifeless remains care, 
if their shroud were the costliest silk and their coffin 
the purest gold? A lost soul has no complacency in 
remembered riches, honors, or pleasures. It never re- 
ceives alleviation of suffering by reflections on time. 
The Judge who delivers an impenitent soul over to 
inextinguishable fires gives no charge for the lessening 
of their intensity, because the new victim had come 
direct from the possession of the highest terrestrial 



NO EXCHANGE FOR A LOST SOUL. 175 

grandeur. Hell's inmates treat with no special favor 
him, who, in the years of his probation, was one of 
earth's most flattered inhabitants. They regard not 
with noted respect, reverence, or affection a Caesar 
or a world-conquering Alexander, or him crowned the 
most famed of uninspired poets. Spirits damned 
show no deference to those doomed souls before whom 
myriads once trembled. 

Jesus, when asking, " What shall it profit," etc., 
knew that the whole world could not benefit him who 
had lost his soul. He often employed negative ques- 
tions, such as the two under consideration ; one of 
which we have just discussed, and now pass to a spe- 
cific notice of the other. 

" Or, what shall a man give in exchange for his 
soul ? " Suppose an individual had gained the entire 
world, but, in making the acquisition, had lost his soul, 
wrecked it while sailing to eternity, and it should be 
drifted to an island in the lake which burnetii with 
unquenchable fire, or should be left to be tossed about 
on the wrathful billows of that lake, or should be 
forced upon the inhospitable shore of his dominions, 
" whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, 
but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon," 
whose name in plain English is Destroyer, and in 
English still more plain, is Devil and Satan ; suppose 
it to be captured by this unholy prince ; how shall it 
be delivered ? What ransom will procure its release ? 
Will that mighty accumulation of wealth, the whole 
world, acquired in time, suffice for an exchange? 
That is not landed on the dark Tartarean shore with 
the soul. Had it been, the soul's captor would have 
seized it likewise. " Death puts an end to the most 



176 OUR HOLY HILL. 

specious titles, to the most dazzling grandeur, and to 
the most delicious life." Inspiration declares, that, 
when a rich man dieth, " he shall carry nothing away ; 
his glory shall not descend after him." Lands are left ; 
houses are left ; equipage is left ; treasures of gold and 
silver are left; luxuries are left; all that was earthly 
remains behind. There is on historic record an af- 
fecting incident, illustrative of the time-limited nature 
which characterizes every thing below the sun. I 
refer to Saladin. "After he had subdued Egypt; 
passed the Euphrates, and conquered cities without 
number; after he had retaken Jerusalem, and per- 
formed exploits more than human, in those wars 
which superstition had stirred up for the recovery of 
the holy land, he finished his life in the performance 
of an action, an account of which ought to be trans- 
mitted to the most distant posterity. A moment be- 
fore he uttered his last sigh, he called the herald who 
had carried his banner before him in all his battles, 
and commanded him to fasten to the top of a lance 
the shroud in which the dying prince was soon to be 
buried. Go, said he, carry this lance, unfurl this ban- 
ner, and, while you lift up this standard, proclaim, 
This, this, is all that remains to Saladin the Great, the 
conquerer and the king of the empire — of all his 
glory." 

Could, however, the wealth of the world be offered 
as an equivalent for the soul, the former would not 
equal in value the latter. Christ paid a greater price 
than that for its ransom. Satan sets a higher esti- 
mate on a single soul than on the kingdoms of this 
world and the glory of them. The groans of damned 
spirits delight his ear. 



NO EXCHANGE FOR A LOST SOUL. 177 

Does not Christ instruct us that efforts for securing 
earthly good may peril the soul's eternal welfare? 
Are not his interrogatories, which we contemplate, 
suited to check unholy zeal in the pursuit of mere 
terrestrial enjoyments ? " Here is the whole world 
set in the scale against one soul, and a Tekel written 
on it." No man expects to gain the whole world, 
though some ambitious aspirants hope to acquire no 
small amount of it. It seems natural for human be- 
ings to crave pleasure, honor, and wealth ; the last 
being generally regarded as the means to the others. 
" The winning of the world is often the losing of the 
soul." Scripture declarations are truly pointed : " He 
that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye." — "They 
that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and 
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men 
in destruction and perdition." Our Saviour asks, 
" How can ye believe, which receive honor one of 
another, and seek not the honor that cometh from 
God only ? " 

One may be as intently set upon the world who 
has no prospect of ever possessing the amount of a 
hundred dollars, as is he within whose grasp are mill- 
ions already, and by whom other millions are confi- 
dently expected. " This intelligent soul — this im- 
mortal soul — this soul, which has been thought worthy 
of redemption by the blood of the Saviour of the 
world — this soul, we often part with it for nothing, 
and for less than nothing." Oh, madness consummate, 
that degrades the spirit imperishable ! Whither hast 
thou gone, reason? Where art thou, self-respect? 
One sells his birthright to an eternal inheritance for 
a parcel of ground; another for glittering dust; a 



178 OUR HOLY HILL. 

third for the momentary gratification of a sensual ap- 
petite. This individual seems content to be damned 
everlastingly if first he may enjoy a brief period of 
political adulation, and that appears content to enter 
hell very early in life if previously the reputation of 
being richly attired may be awarded for a few 
months ! 



AN APPEAL. 

One of the thrilling appeals of him styled the weep- 
ing prophet is in these words : " And what will ye 
do in the end thereof? " He refers to the termination 
of a career which was neither pleasing to God nor 
honorable to man. 

Could a more reasonable appeal have been made 
by a holy seer ? Is it not just such a one as ought 
to fall with stirring tones upon the ear of every erring 
mortal ? An end will come to the probation scene of 
each sinner now indifferently wasting the day of 
grace, or foolishly fighting against the Lord God of 
hosts. 

What wilt thou do in the end, whose only aim is 
to live like a sinner while professing to be a saint? 
As mortal as any man art thou, and as sure to find 
a goal in thy race of double-dealing as are the chief 
of sinners in their chosen way. God's book of re- 
membrance contains thy name; the date of thy open 
espousal to his Son ; the vows which thou tookest 
are all there recorded. So too is thy history each 



AN APPEAL. 179 

day since that ever memorable, and, shall it be said, 
mournful event. Better far not to have named 
Christ than wilfully to dishonor a profession of love. 
But thou hast named him, and poured reproach upon 
the transaction. Even unto this hour thou art vili- 
fying the Saviour of the world. It has been by In- 
spiration said, " Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord 
and the cup of devils ; ye cannot be partakers of the 
Lord's table, ^and of the table of devils." Still, what 
is thy course but an attempt practically to belie these 
.statements? The highest authority has asked, 
"What concord hath Christ with Belial; or what 
part hath he that believeth with an infidel ? " Yet, 
what is thy life but an effort to prove false the nega- 
tion implied in these questions ? Lo, the end cometh ! 
For thy bounds are set, and thou canst not pass 
them. The king of terrors approacheth rapidly. Thy 
aim to join in one brotherhood Christ's enemies and 
his friends shall be abruptly ended. " Your covenant 
with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement 
with hell shall not stand." Ah, ye that betray the 
Son of man with a kiss ; that deny him with oaths 
after having declared a willingness to die with him, 
think of the end that shall close your career! What 
will ye then do ? How shall ye meet its terrible re- 
sults? What plea will ye make? 

Sinner, thoughtless, what wilt thou do in the end? 
Heedlessness hindereth not time's onward hasting. 
The resurrection morn and the retribution day linger 
not in their coming, because millions prepare not for 
them. Indifferent forever thou canst not be. God 
will awake thee to intense interest and to eternal 
activity. Heaven's armory has a trumpet, which 



180 OUR HOLY HILL. 

shall hereafter cause earth and hell to tremble. But 
an end of thy leaden life will arrive long before the 
archangel shall send forth his awful summons. Thy 
coffin may be already manufactured ! Careless sin- 
ner, thy stupidity stamps thee as consummately un- 
wise ! The great problem of thy soul's eternal destiny 
is not yet solved ; but thou art asleep ! Blood, the 
precious blood of Christ, has been shed for thee, and 
thou heedest it not ! God's ark of mercy floats within 
thy reach, still thou dost not cast so much as one 
anxious look upon it. The gate of the New Je- 
rusalem is opened by the King of glory above thee, 
but thou art perfectly unconcerned about entering 
the blissful city. 

Bold blasphemer! wrathful assailant of truth ! what 
wilt thou do in the end ? Thy warfare against truth 
and holiness cannot continue forever. Thy body is 
given, by an unchangeable decree, to the worms ; thy 
soul shall return, at no very distant day, to him who 
gave it! Thy tongue, which uttereth falsehood 
against its Maker, must be erelong silent in death ! 
Scripture predictions, now the theme of thy boasting 
ignorance, shall be fulfilling when death's dark night 
is brooding over thy sightless eyes. The name of 
Jesus, so odious to thee, will be sweet, as it shall 
sound in millions of believers ears, when thine 
have been, for ages, past hearing. Arrayed thou art 
against all goodness — but goodness will not flee 
from the earth for thy sake ; heaven will not trans- 
mute itself into hell because thou hast so commanded. 
The church of Christ will not march off into nonen- 
tity, though thou revile her beauty and imprecate 
damnation upon her children. She shall yet be the 



AN APPEAL. 181 

rejoicing of the whole earth. A host of God haters, 
as well endowed with mental powers as thou art, 
have predicted the ruin of Zion as to occur years ago. 
They have died, but Zion lives and greatly increases. 
Consider the end of thy predecessors in this warfare 
against Jehovah. What did they gain? Good? 
While life lingered they burned with inward fire, and 
breathed it out for the consuming of God's elect ; but 
whom, except themselves, did they essentially harm ? 
" The triumphing of the wicked is short." So it ever 
has been, since the day when- the first murderer stained 
his hand in a brother's blood. The pits which the 
wicked have prepared for the excellent of the earth 
have not infrequently swallowed up those who made 
them. It is a standing maxim, in the moral govern- 
ment of the Most High, that the mischief of trans- 
gressors returns upon their own heads. 

What wilt thou, votary of pleasure, do in the end 
of thy career ? Now thou art surrendered to earthly 
enjoyments ; perhaps only the higher kinds please 
thee ; or it may be thou art wholly attached to the 
least worthy of them all. In what sphere of terrestrial 
gratifications thy heart is most at home, thou doubt- 
less knowest. Not more certainly will this hour give 
place to another, than will the things which to thee 
are now delectable cease to impart delight. The eye 
which with joy peruses pages penned by wickedness 
must soon be closed by the cold fingers of Death, and 
the ear that at present is captivated in the highest 
degree with an unholy minstrelsy shall erelong care 
no more for the sound of the viol or the harp, or for 
the voices of singing men and singing women, than 
does the senseless stone. What, thou wine-bibber.!. 

16 



182 OUR HOLY HILL. 

will the sparkling bowl be to thee, after a few addi- 
tional evenings of hilarity ? Frequenter of theatres ! 
the crowds that this week join thee in going to these 
schools of vice are destined to a sure, perhaps early, 
sepulture. Garrick, even, with all his eminence as an 
actor, could not save himself from the tomb. Instead 
of continuing the idol of listening thousands, he was 
early carried captive by the king of terrors. One 
who knew him says, that never will there be heard a 
sweeter voice than his. Yet none can be more silent 
in death than his has been for scores of years ! And 
where now are the mourners who went from Garrick's 
grave to partake "of the revelries of the night?" 
Where are the countless myriads of pleasure-pursuers 
of bygone generations ? Ye who busy yourselves 
with bubbles are speeding to the dark valley. 

What wilt thou, who bowest down to dust, do in 
the end? Thy homage is paid to a glittering product 
of earth. A material — good in its place, but as unfit 
to be worshipped at this day as it was when Aaron 
cast it into the form of a calf — is thy divinity. 
Thou, a man, an immortal being, a probationer in 
time for a brief period, and then to be, henceforth, in 
eternity, hast made unto thyself a deity of dust. 
What wilt thou do in the end of thy career? Thou 
canst not expect to escape dissolution ; for none in 
thy line of religion have been able to bribe the De- 
stroyer or to delay the advent of his harbingers. 
Multiply, if thou canst, accumulations of money, till 
they shall surround thee as the mountains of Judea 
did ancient Jerusalem ; yet they shall avail nothing 
in the day when the Lord comes to reckon with thee. 
To have made gold thy hope, and the fine gold thy 



TO-DAY. 183 

confidence, will not satisfy thy Judge that the talents 
which he gave thee have been well improved. 



TODAY. 



In the mint of time, each period of twenty-four 
hours receives, in its turn, the stamp to-day. So im- 
pressed, it is welcomed as is a new coin by the busy 
ones of earth. But days, like the circulating medi- 
ums of exchange, move rapidly. They appear, and 
then quickly are out of sight. 

To-day is ours. Yesterday comes to us no more. 
It has gone as a swift though innocent fugitive. We 
can no more retake it than we can make to-day one 
of the days before the ark was erected. To-morrow is 
a nonentity, except as it exists in God's purpose. 
Our only hold on time is limited to the present day ; 
nor need it be intimated how slight that hold is, for 
the blood may cease to course in our veins before to- 
day shall have expired. 

To-day! How much maybe involved in a due 
appreciation of present moments ! What vital, eter- 
nal interests are interwoven with this hour ! Even 
now, death's gate may be opening for us ! Time's 
minutes are not numbered faster than are the new 
graves of earth. We are marked for the dust, and 
soon shall be mingled with it. 

To-day ! This term is suggestive of duties — duties 
negative and duties positive. From some things 



184 OUR HOLY HILL. 

an abstaining is required, and some things demand 
active, energetic, direct, grappling efforts. Not to do, 
and to do, are daily duties. The not doing is often 
as needful as the doing. It was a do not that God 
made the test by which Adam and Eve should try 
themselves. Though sinners cannot be saved by 
simple negatives, our holy progenitors had not be- 
come sinners if they had duly heeded a negation. 
What are some of the negatives in our catalogue of 
duties ? 

One is not to mourn because to-day is not yester- 
day and cannot be to-morrow. To-day has come as 
a friend ; as such it should be treated. What if our 
affections had become much set on a portion of time 
known twenty-four hours since by the term to-day, 
but which has now passed into yesterday ; we can- 
not recall it. Time's car never rolls backward. Its 
engine admits of no reversings — onward is its course. 
No day will be hastened in its flight or retarded^ to 
gratify us; and we rebel against God if we com- 
plain of his arrangements in regard to time's winged 
course. 

It is a duty not to repine at changes naturally ef- 
fected by the flight of time. God is as young now 
as he was before that beginning in which he created 
the heaven and the earth ; but mortals must increase 
in age as rapidly as glides the current of time. It is 
in vain, and it is wicked, for the hoary headed to wish 
that they might be young again; though it be right 
and profitable for those who have dwelt long on earth 
to review the scenes through which they have passed, 
and to adore the goodness of the Lord by which he 
has blessed them, and to recall to mind the chastise- 



TO-DAY. 185 

ments with which he has visited them. Serious re- 
flections on the past may inspire the heart with praise 
to God, and prompt it to the due exercise of humility 
and contrition on account of sin. 

Again, it is a duty not to spend to-day in fruitless 
grievings over special providential events that admit 
of no change. Who does not perpetually miss from 
the immediate circle of his friends some countenances 
that once cheered him ? Faces that were inspiring 
he sees no more ! They have gone to the dust. To 
remember them with affection is not sinful. How 
could they be forgotten ? But this day, perhaps the 
last of our own pilgrimage period, should not be de- 
voted to useless grievings because we see the departed 
no more. Others, with whom we were once fellow- 
travellers towards eternity, may still be pursuing the 
journey of life; but they and we are necessarily dis- 
severed. Surely, no to-day, wholly, or in part, ought 
to be given up to lamentations that they whom God 
has thus put asunder are not joined together. He 
that orders all things should not be censured for lo- 
cating us in one place, and certain persons dear to us 
in another. If, however, by reason of a weakness 
unbecoming even a child, we are pining for bygone 
scenes, and for associates once ours, but now so no 
more, we are unworthy of further enjoyments, espe- 
cially of being honored by new friendships. 

Far from us should be the pusillanimous spirit that 
demands the presence of any particular mortal to in- 
spire us with fortitude and to incite us to energetic 
efforts in behalf of a common humanity. We are 
not deserving of a kindly look from so much as one 
human countenance, if we do not recognize in every 

16* 



186 OUR HOLY HILL. 

person a brother or a sister. We deserve to be quickly 
covered with earth, if each day be not thankfully spent 
by us in doing good on the largest scale possible. 
To spend life otherwise is to waste it. 

Further, it is no part of our duty to be complain- 
ing of any one of God's doings in the realm of 
nature, or of his interpositions in the kingdom of 
grace. Let us be specially cognizant of the fact that 
the Almighty has not committed to us the revision 
of his inspired Volume. We misapply the precious 
moments of to-day, if they be spent in such labor. 
God's Book comes to us with his own impress on it. 

The foregoing are some of the do nots meriting 
daily attention. We have specified only a few. The 
Decalogue has many a do not in it. It has also posi- 
tive requirements. Our ears should be open to di- 
vine utterances, and the heart ready to receive them, 
from whatever part of nature or of revelation they 
may come to us. God is to-day calling us to active 
service. Through all the products of his creative 
power he is speaking. Both works and providences 
are mediums by which he in a measure communicates 
with man. The Bible is a to-day book. Every moral 
precept within it, when first revealed, said to-day. 
Idolatry was not allowable an hour after the issuing 
of the commandment against it. We say not that 
it was lawful previously, for it was not ; but had it 
been, its legality would have ceased just so soon as 
it was divinely interdicted. When God completed 
the volume of his revealed will, he gave it to the 
world as a to-day book. Its prohibitions, promises, 
persuasives, and threatenings have an elementary 
now in them. They are in the present tense. Jeho- 



TO-DAY. 187 

vah calls upon us to reason with him now. It is now 
that he proposes to make scarlet sins white as snow, 
and to render guilt, red as crimson, white as wool. 
It is now that he commands all people to repent. 
To-day he exhibits his measureless love toward a 
world of sinners. All that he has done to redeem 
and save the world is laid before us to-day. What 
four thousand years were revealing, we now see com- 
pletely revealed. 

To-day God speaks, and his words are for this day. 
Not limited to it, but appropriate to it, and not 
avoidable to-day by any persons with impunity. To- 
day God speaks, and he must be heard, or the hearts 
of recusants will be hardened. What does he say? 
Is he not explicit and full ? % 

To-day, God says to each creature to whom on 
earth he has given a rational nature, act as a rational 
being. If we judge mankind by their conduct, we 
are forced to the conclusion that they do not all re- 
spect their rationality. Instead of magnifying their 
position in the world as intelligent agents, great num- 
bers degrade themselves to a state of slavery ; sordid 
appetites and passions being their lords. 

Be a man, says the Most High to every one of an 
age sufficient to wear the image of manhood. Stand 
up as a man — and not attempt to move about as a 
reptile or as a brute. Crush not yourself by unmanly 
burdens. Load not yourself with sensualities, which 
your truest humanity never imposes, and which 
Heaven interdicts. 

Be a man in all your dealings with the brotherhood 
of society in which you dwell. The Eternal so speaks 
to you to-day. He abhors un manliness in social in- 



188 OUR HOLY HILL. 

tercourse. One in human form may pride himself as 
having an ability to deceive his fellows, to outwit 
them, to enrich himself by impoverishing them ; and 
the more he accomplishes in that way, the more he 
may exult in himself. But Infinite Goodness looks 
upon him as odious, detestable. 

Perhaps, among all the wicked of time, none ex- 
hibit more the spirit of fiends than do those who op- 
pose useful reforms in society. Earth has long been 
darkened by sin. At the present time it is computed 
that one tenth of the human family dwell in moral 
darkness which is total; five tenths more are in dark- 
ness ; three tenths are in twilight, and only one tenth 
enjoy clear Gospel light. But millions of good peo- 
ple are go-working with the Head of the church in 
efforts to dispel the yet reigning darkness, and to in- 
troduce a millennial era to the world. These fellow- 
laborers with God's Son are widely dispersed. Some 
of them have gone on distant missions to endure 
hardness as good soldiers. Others are toiling on their 
native soil, among indigenous sinners — the hardest- 
hearted, it may be, of all to whom the gospel is 
preached. The most morally cultivated countries 
have, as yet, much territory religiously unblest. 
Those who resist in any way the enterprises of the 
pious, develop the workings of a spirit in covenant 
with hell. Standing aloof from philanthropic schemes 
shows one to be far beneath the divine standard of 
true manliness ; but the assailant of those engaged 
in such schemes — what language can describe his 
unmanliness ? 

To-day, that Almighty Being who darts the light- 
ning and sends forth the rolling thunders, commands 



TO-DAY. f 189 

unmanly sinners to return to those dignified feelings, 
principles, and practices, which he foreordained as 
a part of true humanity. Hear God's voice in this 
particular, thou unmanned man, and be henceforth 
worthy of thy name — man. 

But it is not to a simple rationality that Jehovah 
this day summons us. We are commanded to pre- 
sent ourselves before him ; to be clothed, if we are not 
as yet, in the righteousness of his Son. That plan 
of mercy, by God devised, executed, and made known 
to us, is not a matter which we may safely overlook. 
The great scene on Calvary was not an exhibition to 
be noticed only by a few of mankind. Christ died 
for the world. He said, if he should be lifted up he 
would draw all men after him ; that is, he would be- 
come the centre of attraction to the race of man ; and 
he is so. Wherever human nature appears in its 
true humanity, the Lord Jesus is the great object of 
interest. 

To genuine penitence, for sin, to the exercise of a 
saving faith in his own Lamb, does God now call 
every person that hears his voice. To the contrite 
and believing he speaks of a deeper contrition, of a 
more controlling faith, as necessary. The Father 
in heaven sees not a little of conformity to the world 
on the part of those from whom he has heard solemn 
renunciations of it, and professions of uniformity with 
his regulations. To-day he rebukes his erring chil- 
dren. " Wash you, make you clean ; put away the 
evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to 
do evil ; learn to do well ; seek judgment ; relieve the 
oppressed ; judge the fatherless ; plead for the widow." 
Who can suppose that Christian people are generally 



190 # OUR HOLY HILL. 

as holy and active as they should be? But God 
commands them to be just what they ought to be ; 
no more, no less. And he must be heard in this re- 
spect, or his judgments will come down upon those 
who stop their ears against him. He that delivered 
up Pharaoh to hardness of heart may in like manner 
abandon some nominally of the elect. A piety that 
purines not the life is a counterfeit. A piety that does 
not impel to much effort for Christ is without his 
inscription. Grace is freely bestowed, and in return 
the recipient is required to consecrate himself and his 
all to the great Giver. Faith in Jesus is a life, not a 
mere profession. It has wrought mighty achieve- 
ments, it ought to do it constantly. To-day God 
bids it arise to the greatest undertakings. 

This world's history ! What is it, to a great ex- 
tent, but a portrayal of eyes closed to the light of eter- 
nal truth ; of ears stopped to the Almighty's voice ? 
What processes mankind have adopted of converting 
into adamant their own hearts, which were made 
to feel and to love him whose nature is love ? 

To-day God speaks in notes of warning. Terror- 
stricken should be every rebel against him. His 
words do not return to him void. Still, however, 
there are accents of mercy alighting from the skies. 
God's compassion endures. Mediation is progressing 
in the holiest heaven. Angels have not laid aside 
those harps which they employ when sinners repent 
on earth. Not yet is the term of the renewing Spirit's 
commission expired. 



NO MORE DEATH. 191 



NO MORE DEATH. 

From Adam to the present hour, Death has tyran- 
nized over the human race. With only two excep- 
tions, miraculously made, he has trampled beneath his 
iron heels every individual in the past generations of 
mankind. Now he is marching among the nations 
with the strength of more than a thousand giants, 
causing greater devastations than are produced by 
myriads of triumphant warriors. 

It has been natural to regard death as an enemy; 
nor is he viewed in that light without sufficient rea- 
sons. He assaults the soul's habitation — man's 
body. His arrows, dipped in fatal poison, are directed 
at every point conceivably vulnerable in this handi- 
work of Jehovah. Indeed, he may be said to have 
infused a virus into the very lifeblood of every mem- 
ber of the human family. When sin first infected 
man's soul, at that identical time his flesh became 
mortal. Dead, morally, is each of earth's millions by 
nature, and physical death reigns over all the descend- 
ants of the primevous sinner ; reigns in them all. The 
final struggle, in any particular case of mortality, is 
but the completion of a work which has progressed 
for a period longer or shorter, as the subject's age has 
been. Those who still continue to see, hear, know, 
and act upon the earth, are besieged by Death. 

Temporal enterprises meet a fearful foe in this en- 
emy of man. How many of them does he utterly 
defeat ! He arrests and imprisons in a dark, cheer- 
less cell, the husbandman, as he is renewing in spring 



192 OUR HOLY HILL. 

those labors by which, from year to year, the soil has 
been cultivated, and the face of the field beautified. 
From many a half-erected edifice, the builder is hur- 
ried into the tomb. He that starts upon a career of 
industry, promising great good to society, may be 
felled to the dust in a moment. Partly performed 
journeys and voyages, death frequently terminates with 
surprising abruptness. The scholar, before whom the 
luxuries and the honors of high intellectual attainment 
hang out in tempting clusters, faints and dies when 
he seems on the point of grasping them all. He that 
has just been inaugurated the president of a republic, 
or crowned as sovereign of an empire, may hear a 
summons from him, whose prerogative it is to break 
down all distinctions in society. " Boast not thyself 
of to-morrow " is a warning mandate of Inspiration. 
With emphasis it is added, " For thou knowest not 
what a day may bring forth." It is divinely asked of 
us : " What is your life ? " But, the Holy Spirit, not 
leaving us to frame a reply, says : " It is even a vapor, 
that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth 
away." 

Death may be denominated the enemy of earthly 
friendships. The tenderest and the strongest ties of 
terrestrial affection he severs without the least mis- 
giving. Never does the harmony of a household, or the 
delightful society of intimate companions, influence 
him to turn back or delay his approaching footsteps. 
So unsympathizing is Death, that he will apparently 
hasten to seize the infant which a mother is joyfully 
embracing as her first-born. He obtrudes himself 
into the very chamber where the youthful fair one is 
preparing herself for the bridal hour, already appointed 



NO MORE DEATH. 193 

and at hand. Death's eye is tearless ; his nature is 
heartless. Pour, if you please, your tale of grief into the 
ear of night, and some guardian angel may be at 
hand with a soothing fear not for you, from the throne 
of God ; but in vain will you tell Death that it must 
prove an unbearable burden to be left friendless in 
a world whose tender mercies are cruel. He feels 
not for the widow, nor commiserates the condition of 
orphan children. No agonies of a wife, at the thought 
of soon being like " a sparrow alone upon the house- 
top ; " no entreaties of children, that they may be 
spared from being cast fatherless and helpless upon 
society, can hold back for a moment this destroyer. 
Behold what desolations he is daily making in the 
circles of human friendship ! 

We have spoken of Death as an enemy. The 
Scriptures in one place speak of him as the last ene- 
my of man, and it seems not perfectly obvious why 
this term last is employed. 1 Cor. 15 : 26. A writer 
has suggested that its use arose from the fact that 
death entered the world subsequently to sin, man's 
first enemy. We think, however, there is more reason 
in the intimation that he is styled the last enemy 
because he is the last to yield his hold upon the race 
of man. Saints are freed from sin at the time in 
which they cease to be among the living ; still their 
bodies are to be held by death till the general resur- 
rection. But, on whatever account the epithet last is 
introduced, we are taught in the Scriptures that 
death itself is to be destroyed. 

Long, doubtless, will those now sleeping in dust 
remain unawaked. Prophecies are not all accom- ■ 
plished. The glory of Jehovah has not yet filled the 

17 



194 OUR HOLY HILL. 

earth as the waters do the sea ; thus, however, it must 
be. God's word cannot fail — it shall not return to 
him void. It shall prosper in the thing whereto he 
has sent it. Not more surely does day now succeed 
day, and year follow year, than is the last day of time 
certain to arrive, and is Christ to come in the clouds of 
heaven with all the holy angels. Dead, small and 
great, dead long buried and dead just buried, will be 
summoned by the trump, whose tones shall penetrate 
into all the resting-places of mortal dust. When the 
dead shall have been raised, then will Death himself 
fall a prey to the subduing power of the omnipotent 
Immanuel. This tyrant, having reduced millions 
upon millions to dust, shall be forced to surrender 
every victim of his power, and then himself sink be- 
neath an annihilating stroke. 

" And there shall be no more death." May not the 
Christian rejoice in this fact ? Is it not right for him 
as he is about to depart from time to say, " My flesh 
also shall rest in hope." May he not join with Job, 
using that patriarch's words in their most literal im- 
port : " And though after my skin, worms destroy this 
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." Is it not im- 
possible for the enlightened believer in Jesus to be- 
come indifferent to the disposition that shall be made 
of the clayey tabernacle which he leaves when he 
ascends to the skies ? Piety certainly does not inspire 
contempt for the body, nor inculcate indifference to 
its future destiny. 

The doctrine of the resurrection is adapted to cheer 
the saint over whose eyelids are creeping the slum- 
bers of death. Though rescued from the pains of hell, 
he must submit to dissolution. How animating are 



NO MORE DEATH. 195 

the announcements of revelation ! " I will ransom 
them from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them 
from death. O death! I will be thy plagues. O 
grave ! I will be thy destruction." " For this corrup- 
tible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must 
put on immortality." 

Nor is the fact that the dead shall be raised, and 
the Destroyer of mankind be destroyed, without its 
consolations for those survivors who have committed 
pious kindred to the earth. We ought not to lose our 
interest in the dust of those, who, when living, were 
dear to us. Their graves should be kept in order, 
and guarded against the intrusion of beasts, and of 
those in human form who are more thoughtless than 
brutes. We do well to cherish carefully a remem- 
brance of our departed kindred. Still, slight is the 
consolation derivable from mere thoughts of the dead, 
or from visits to their resting-places. Soon, perhaps 
very soon, we shall be laid near them, to await in the 
same soil the trump of God. 

To the scriptural doctrine that the dead will be 
raised, no more to die, must we look for our chief com- 
fort concerning the bodies of those who sleep in 
Christ. " For the Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel 
and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ 
shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain 
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds 
to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever be 
with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with 
these words." 

It would be improper to dismiss this subject without 
an allusion to a death that will not be destroyed. It 



196 OUK HOLY HILL. 

is termed the second death. The chapter in the divine 
volume which asserts there shall be no more death, 
Uhat is, no more dying in the ordinary acceptation of 
vthe term, speaks of a second death. " But the fear- 
ful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and mur- 
derers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idol- 
aters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake 
which burnetii with fire and brimstone ; which is the 
second death." Rev. 21 : 8. 



CHRIST'S SECOND COMING. 

None who believe that Jesus Christ was the true 
Messiah can reject the doctrine of a " second advent." 
There may be a difference of opinion respecting the 
time of its occurrence ; and whether some Scripture 
passages supposed to relate to the event are to be in- 
terpreted literally or figuratively, is a question about 
which learned and good men differ. But all who 
admit that there has been a first coming of Christ 
"hold that when he left the earth for heaven, there was 
to be a second coming. 

Christ's second coming- is an event yet future. Some 
maintain that it is past. A class of persons argue 
that all which was intended by the predictions rel- 
ative to His return had an accomplishment when 
Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans under Titus. 
There is, doubtless, in one discourse of Jesus, a blend- 
ing of statements in regard to the overthrow of the 



\ 
CHRIST'S SECOND COMING. 197 



holy city and the general judgment. See Matt. 24. 
Prophecies are often uttered in this manner ; besides, 
many words and passages in the Bible have a two- 
fold import. That method of interpretation which 
would make all the expressions pointing out a second 
coming of Christ refer only to the destruction of 
Jerusalem, merits human, as it no doubt receives 
divine, reprobation. It is a wicked struggle to fritter 
away obvious and sublime announcements, which 
teach that the Son of Man is yet to come. Since 
his ascension he has not made his re-appearance in 
such a way as the infallible volume instructs us to 
anticipate. 

The time of Christ's second coming- is not definitely 
revealed. Men have speculated about it, and proba- 
bly the years that shall succeed, till many a genera- 
tion of human beings shall have arisen, acted, and de- 
parted, will be prolific in similar speculations. 

A little prior to our Lord's departure from earth', 
his disciples proposed to him the following question : 
" Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to 
Israel ? " The answer which he returned ought to 
confound all who attempt to set up boundaries to Je- 
hovah's onward purposes : " It is not for you to know 
the times or the seasons which the Father hath put 
in his own power." Acts 1 : 7. On one occasion 
Christ employed the following emphatic language : 
" But of that day and that hour knoweth no man; 
no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the 
Son, but the Father." Mark 13 : 32. The significancy 
of this statement is not affected by any uncertainty 
pertaining to it, as to whether by that day he meant 
the predicted time of Jerusalem's ruin, or of his own 
17* 



198 OUR HOLY HILL. 

second advent. Let it be remembered, by those who 
•are anxious to know the exact dates of future events, 
that only Omniscience knows them. No creature on 
earth or in heaven can have a definite idea respecting 
the time of their fulfilment, otherwise than as God 
reveals it, and he wisely conceals the time from all 
finite beings. It is safe, however, to observe that the 
second advent of Christ is probably very far in the 
distant future. Of its proximity, we believe the Scrip- 
tures furnish no indications ; on the contrary, they 
indicate definitely that it cannot be at hand. 

Christ's second coining will be variously in striking 
contrast ivith his first. Once he came as an infant, 
being not less dependent on maternal tenderness than 
are any in human form. Penury and humbleness of 
rank marked his parentage. When he shall again 
visit earth it will be with great power and glory. 
Few only of mankind beheld him at his first advent ; 
but a multitude which no man can number shall be 
.eye-witnesses of his return ; his descent the last time 
will be open and conspicuous. 

As our Lord was ascending to heaven from the 
Mount of Olives, and as his disciples stood looking 
steadfastly after him, two persons of human mien, 
and called men by the sacred historian, but doubtless 
angels, said, " This same Jesus which is taken up 
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner 
as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1 : 11. 
Precisely how much is meant by the like manner, we 
know not. He will, however, appear in the form of 
man, and with the identical body that arose from the 
dead and ascended to heaven. Divested of this ma- 
terial nature he could not be the Messiah who atoned 



Christ's second coming. 199 

for sin by dying on the cross. A human body was 
essential to constitute him the Christ of God when 
he came to redeem ; and it will be equally so when 
he shall reappear. He must wear the distinctive 
marks of having been the Lamb of God slain for sin. 
We are taught that his persecutors will recognize 
him, and wail because of their cruelty toward him. 

That Christ's return will be open to the gaze of all 
men is a fact especially set forth in the Scriptures. 
His own words are unequivocal : " Before him shall 
be gathered all nations." Matt. 25 : 32. His coming 
will be, in part, for the purpose of a public mani- 
festation of himself in the presence of Adam's race. 
The apostasy of man was public. Sin's turbid waves 
have rolled and dashed in the sight of the universe. 
The promise, that a Saviour should come for the res- 
cue of man, was openly announced. Ritual services 
prefiguring the Messiah were performed in the broad 
light of day. Prophets sent forth their Messianic 
predictions boldly among the nations. No conceal- 
ment was sought for the Saviour's first advent, though 
from the nature of the case a knowledge of the event 
was for a while confined to a limited sphere. Gen- 
erally, Christ's preaching and miracles were in public. 
The transactions relative to his betrayal, trial, con- 
demnation, and crucifixion, were all open. Angels, 
devils, and men were witnesses of these scenes. So 
must they be of his return. 

Christ's second coming will be an event of the high- 
est sublimity. " The Son of Man shall come in the 
glory of his Father, with his angels." Matt. 16 : 27. 
God's glory we cannot describe. It is ineffably bright. 
Our eyes are dazzled by the light of the sun. Yet 



200 OUR HOLY HILL. 

were millions of orbs like that to combine their beams, 
the resulting brilliancy might not be more than a faint 
emblem of the brightness which issues from any sin- 
gle radiating point of God's throne. 

The Scriptures inform us that all the angelic hosts 
will attend Christ when he shall come a second time. 
Before that event, a special summons may gather 
them together from every part of the universe whither 
their embassies have carried them. Thousand thou- 
sands shall minister unto him, and ten thousand times 
ten thousand shall stand before him. Sanctified hu- 
man souls, that have from generation to generation 
been collecting in heaven, will form a part of the de- 
scending Saviour's retinue as they shall return to pos- 
sess again their tenements of clay. But they will 
not come to dwell any more on earth. The visible 
heavens may be crowded with countless numbers of 
angels and saints attending the coming Messiah, 
and he " who once lay prostrate in unknown agony 
at Gethsemane, and was numbered with malefactors 
on Mount Calvary, shall in human form exercise om- 
nipotence, omniscience, and all Divine perfections." 
At his signal the archangel's trump shall sound 
throughout the regions of the dead. Sea and land 
will hear, and in obedience to its summons surrender 
their treasures of human dust. Whoever has lived 
and died shall be revivified. Memorials of the great, 
royal sepulchres, monuments which have withstood 
time's wasting influences for ages, will in a moment 
be hurled from their foundations, and shattered into 
countless atoms. Rock-hewn tombs, that for thou- 
sands of years shall have resisted the revolutionary 
agencies of nature and of nations, will be stripped of 



Christ's second coming. 201 

their hoary sanctity, and converted by the omnipotent 
Saviour's fiat into ruins. The descending Jesus will 
need no stone, polished or plain, to direct his eye to 
the resting-place of any mortal. Dust, once in the form 
of a living human body, though buried far beneath the 
foundations of great cities, shall move at his edict, 
and hasten to the light of day. When all the dead 
shall have been raised, then, from their lofty height, 
where they have awaited a while the orders of their 
King, will the souls of the saints descend and unite 
with their resurrection bodies ; and out from hell, as 
from a prison, shall issue the millions of condemned 
souls to enter again their material tenements. Also, 
at Christ's bidding, angels fallen and damned will 
come forth, manacled with chains of darkness, to meet 
him whose name they abhorred ; whose purposes they 
opposed ; but whose kingdom they could not destroy, 
or even harm. 

Christ's second coming- will be for the completion of 
the scheme of mercy toward man. The mediatorial 
kingdom will be terminated on that august occasion. 
It was to continue till all enemies should be subject to 
him, and such will be the state of things as he shall 
make his second appearance. When all the souls 
and bodies of mankind have been reunited ; when, 
also, the holy angels, and the angels who kept not 
their first estate, are gathered about the descended 
Saviour, then shall the living of earth's inhabitants 
be changed, and the judgment of the great day take 
place. Every one of earth's millions and of hell's 
myriads will then give account to him. He " shall 
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in 
flaming fire, taking vengeance on all them that know 



202 OUR HOLT HILL. 

not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting de- 
struction from the presence of the Lord and from the 
glory of his power." 2 Thess. 1 : 7-9. He likewise 
shall come " to be glorified in his saints and to be ad- 
mired in all them that believe." Crowns of unfading 
honor will be conferred on the saints, but eternal in- 
famy must be assigned as the only ornament of the 
sinner. Apostate angels will be shut up in an ever- 
lasting prison. 

" That great triumph day of God's incarnate Son " 
is doubtless in the far-off future. More generations 
of human beings than have existed since dust was 
fashioned into man may yet appear on the earth 
before Christ shall return. Wonders of grace will 
yet immeasurably augment the company of the saved 
ere his advent. Christ's second coming is, however, 
to be viewed as an event practically near every per- 
son now on probation. He that to-day is wrapped 
in death's windingsheet will henceforth experience 
no moral change. It can make no special personal 
difference to the present generation whether Christ 
shall come in one hundred and fifty years, or not for 
thousands. To each, death is near ; and when it shall 
arrive his condition for eternity will be immutably 
decided. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 1 6066 
(724)779-2111 



